


Half-Begun and Unfinished

by LokiFirefox



Category: Glee, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer, X-Men
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-01-21 21:35:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 20,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1564877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LokiFirefox/pseuds/LokiFirefox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is not a fic, this is basically a repository of ideas and stories I have that have not yet made into a story (and probably won't) or scenes from existing fics that went to the cutting room floor. This will have scenes and ideas primarily for Glee but expect some other fandoms here like Harry Potter and even Twilight. Yes, Twilight. Rated M for safety reasons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

A lot of writers I follow have posts like this, where they include chapters or scenes that aren't fully fleshed-out or didn't go anywhere or were cut from the story. I actually have put together quite a few (and a whole lot more I've deleted) and I decided to post it here. Please take the title seriously, these are ideas that didn't go anywhere so while I'm not saying I will never continue these stories, please don't hold your breath.

Technically _Power Play, Cats vs Dogs_  and  _Titans vs Wolves_  should be included here and  _A Long Time Coming_  barely made the cut to full-fledged one-shot. I'm not transferring those stories but it should give you an idea of what to expect.

I tend to write scenes and then spin the story from there, sometimes it works ( _You Don't_ ), most of the time it doesn't ( _Something New_ ).

Expect to see a lot of activity for the next couple of days and then watch it dry out. I'm not a prolific writer so we will hit the limit of unfinished and half-begun stories really quickly.

Also, pretty much all of these are un-betaed. So advance warning to my fellow grammarians, verb-tense agreements will be considered an endangered animal here so I apologize for hurting your brain and annoying you in advance.

Okay, that's it. I hope you enjoy it for what it is. If these stories interest you and you decide to run with it, drop me a line so I can see your take on it. I'd love to read what you got.

Cheers!


	2. Rachel Talks to Blaine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place during S05E16 Tested. Blaine and Kurt's fight explodes, here is the aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was watching Tested and it was during Kurt and Blaine's fight that I got pissed on Blaine's behalf. I see Blaine with rose-tinted glasses so I tend to pick his side but at the same time I've noticed that Kurt only wants to be communicative when it's at his convenience. However that's not what this scene is about.
> 
> I actually stopped playing the episode to write this and then continued watching the episode after so there goes my inclusion of Julie as part of the group.
> 
> As you can tell, it's just a scene. I may use it in the future, or this will be it.

“You know, I just realized this is only the second time I’ve been here?”

Blaine looked up from the couch. Rachel noticed that he hadn’t even taken off his coat yet. His eyes had lost the burning anger from earlier and were just sad and incredibly lost.

“I’m sorry about this evening,” Blaine mumbled looking back down on his hands.

Rachel took off her coat and hung it and walked into the living room. She sat on the easy chair and leaned towards Blaine.

“It’s okay,” she assured him. “Sam and Artie took Mercedes and Julie out for some ice cream. Kurt was going to come here to yell at you some more but I told him to let me come after you while he should channel that anger and clean the dishes instead.”

Blaine looked up and Rachel could see the flint back in his eyes. “Let him come,” Blaine said quietly. “I’m not exactly done—”

“Blaine,” Rachel interrupted. “This is why I came. Whatever is going on between you and Kurt, shouting at each other isn’t going to resolve it.”

Rachel could see Blaine deflate and she realized that the anger had long since gone and what she saw a second ago was just an act.

“What’s going on with you, Blaine?” She was deeply worried for her friend. “I know I’m pretty self-absorbed and I haven’t always been the best friend to all of you guys but I’m here now. Things with Kurt have been strained, haven’t they?”

The silence stretched between them but Rachel buried her impatience. She let it stretch, knowing that Blaine needed someone to listen to him and he’ll talk eventually. Usually Sam was his go-to-guy for this but Sam has been preoccupied with Mercedes lately so Rachel decided to step-up.

Sooner than she expected, Blaine sighed and then slowly started removing his coat. “It’s supposed to get better.”

“What was?” Rachel cursed herself, she should have just made a noise. She didn’t want to interrupt his train of thought. Fortunately she didn’t think she did because Blaine went on talking. He must have been keeping this to himself for a while now.

“New York,” he said. “Things were supposed to be better here. We get our lives and we live it. It’s not like high school where everything was always “not right now” or “be careful”. Here we’re supposed to be together and then live the rest of our lives.”

Blaine looked at Rachel directly. “It’s supposed to be better.”

“But it isn’t?”

“No,” Blaine ran his hand through his hair uncaring that it broke his curls loose. “It isn’t.”

“Tell me about it,” Rachel prodded when Blaine didn’t say anything else.

“Everyone in NYADA hates me,” Blaine said almost resentfully. “The students give me the side-eye and, no, I’m _not_ imagining it. And the teachers! They pile me with more work than everyone else and their expectations are unrealistic! I just started in September! How am I supposed to know these things?!”

Blaine got up and started pacing.

“And Kurt! Instead of supporting me, he just shrugs his shoulders like, “well, it wasn’t easy for me either you’ll get the hang of it soon enough”. He’s my fiancé, shouldn’t he be in my corner?”

“I know I know,” Blaine said as if he was interrupting Rachel but she wasn’t planning on saying anything yet. “I was really smothering him when I got here but I missed him! I thought I lost him and he took me back, I admit I went a little overboard with being in his space but he didn’t say anything! That’s another thing,” Blaine starts to heat up again, “we never communicate anymore! He never tells me if I’m bothering him or anything really. I tell him my day and when I expect him to tell me his he just nods at me and then goes back to what he was doing!” Blaine looks at Rachel and she’s surprised to see the anger back and this time it _wasn’t_ an act. She supposed Blaine got his second wind. “Did he tell you about the porn site?”

Rachel nodded. How could she not?

“Funny, when I told him that we should talk about it, he said that all we do is talk but then he talks to you about it,” Blaine bites out as he rubs the heel of his palm into one of his eyes in frustration.

“When I get stressed out, I eat,” Blaine admits. “I used to be a chubby kid and that plus being gay meant a lot of crap got handed to me. When I was beaten up I was in the hospital for weeks. I lost a lot of weight there and I decided to use that opportunity to keep the weight off. And since then, I haven’t done any nervous eating until I got here, when all of this started to get to me and the person who’s supposed to help me out, isn’t.”

“I feel ugly, Rachel,” Blaine said with a sigh, anger leaving him once more, collapsing back on the couch. “That’s why I Kurt and I haven’t had sex in a while. I feel bloated and fat and like I’m 14 again and the bullies are out to get me, except they’re here in New York where I thought I would finally be accepted. And my fiancé can’t be bothered to find out what’s going on with me.”

Rachel gets up from the chair and sits beside Blaine, and grabbing his hand, feels relief when he lets her.

“Blaine, you know that Kurt is my best friend, right?”

“I know,” he says. “I understand if you’re on his side—”

“No no no no,” Rachel interrupts with a smile. “That’s not what I meant to say.” Blaine looks at her, puzzled. “Kurt is my best friend,” she begins again. “I love him to death and I admire him so please remember that when I ask you why did you propose to him?”

“Because he’s my soulmate!” Blaine exclaims. “Of all people, Rach, I think you would understand...”

“I do,” Rachel says, fighting down the lump that always gets to her when she thinks of Finn but it’s easier now. It’s been getting easier and she doesn’t know if she should be grateful or sad about it. “But the thing is, Finn and I didn’t get that chance to figure it out. To be honest, the Finn I loved was the Finn I knew in McKinley. Finn changed, Blaine, and so did I. We had to. We grew up. Would we still love each other? I’ll never know.

“But you and Kurt,” she says squeezing his hands, “you have that chance to figure it out. But you didn’t. Blaine, you proposed without getting to know Kurt again. Honestly I thought you proposed because you wanted to prove that you are not a cheater or a terrible person. I know you love Kurt, I don’t doubt that, but which Kurt do you love?”

Rachel knows that last one will force a response from Blaine so she put a finger on his lips and charged on. “You say you know he’s changed since coming to New York but what you don’t realize is how much _you_ changed since he left. You are two different people now and yet you’re behaving like the past year didn’t happen. You haven’t acknowledged the new Blaine and if _he_ loves the new Kurt. And it’s not just you; Kurt isn’t exactly getting to know the new you either. He just gets upset when you don’t act like you used to.”

Finally done, she puts her finger down and grabs both of Blaine’s hand. She braces herself for the outburst until she remembers that of all her friends, Blaine is the least likely to shout at her, no matter what she says. So she relaxes and just waits him out.

“You’re right,” Blaine says after a while. “So what do I do?”

“Uh-uh,” Rachel says cuddling close to Blaine, glad that he isn’t upset with her, and laying her head on his chest. She feels his arm wrap around her shoulders, pulling her close. As much as she loved Finn, she has always been amazed at how well she and Blaine just _fit_. If only...she sighed with a giggle to herself, if only indeed. “I have reached the end of my duties as friend. You guys will have to figure it out from here. At this point on, my involvement will just be meddling. I may not know a lot about being a good friend, but I’m pretty experienced about being a bad one and this is “bad friend” territory.”

“I think you’re a pretty good friend, Rachel Berry,” Blaine said with a quiet laugh. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

They sit in silence for a while. Then Rachel clears her throat. She feels as well as hears Blaine’s chuckle. “What?”

“I just realized why everyone in NYADA hates you.”

“Ouch,” Blaine says but she can feel the smile in it. “I thought you’re supposed to say that I’m imagining it.”

“Actually, no you’re not,” Rachel says with a wince.

“They hate me?” Rachel winces again when she hears the hurt in Blaine’s voice. She sighs and sits up.

“Blaine, I’m no longer in NYADA but I still keep in touch with what goes on there.”

“You mean Kurt tells you everything.”

“Same thing,” Rachel says dismissively. “I want you to realize something and I don’t want you to get hurt because it will _sound_ like it will but...do you trust me?”

“Yes, but what—”

“If you trust me,” she says interrupting him, “then let me say all of this without interruptions, okay? I promise you will have a chance to refute me _if_ I’m wrong after I’ve said my piece, okay?”

She takes Blaine’s silence as agreement and takes a deep breath.

“Blaine I know you like to think you were a loser like us back in high school but you really weren’t. Think about it, you became student body president after being in school for only one year; you were captain of the Cheerios and the only one that Coach Sylvester went after to get back on the squad. She didn’t go after Quinn, Santana or Brittany but she went after you and only after a _day_ of being a Cheerio. You became the head of pretty much all the clubs you joined, you were the New Rachel of New Directions—and deservedly so—you were my Tony when you were a junior and from what Mercedes told me, you would have been Danny if you didn’t turn it down. You were never slushied despite being out and proud and a member of more geeky clubs than me and Kurt combined, the one time you were slushied it wasn’t by a McKinley student and you weren’t the actual target. And finally, you were the class valedictorian despite not having the highest GPA.

“Face it, you led a charmed life in high school. Don’t get me wrong, Blaine, you are definitely one of us and we love you but you were never a _loser_ like the rest of us.”

She interrupts him seeing him defending them all by saying they aren’t “losers”, bless him he’s so predictable. “You know what I mean, Blaine. To _them_ we were losers...but you never were.”

“Things have always come easy for you, you never had to struggle half-as-hard as the rest of us had to. I know, you have had other struggles, but never in school. But ths time it’s _school_ that’s giving you problems and you don’t have the experience to handle it.”

Rachel paused and looked at Blaine and she could she see his brows furrowing as he was taking it all in.

“Think about it, you got in NYADA on your first try—both Kurt and I had to basically beg Mme. Tibideaux to let us audition again. And from Kurt tells me of the rumors going around NYADA, you gave the best audition of your batch. Of your eight classes you share six of them with Kurt and other _upperclassmen_ and of the other two, you only share one with other freshmen because it’s a prerequisite and the other is a special class filled with one junior and six seniors. You are the first freshman to be in that class. Ever.

“You convinced Mme. Tibideaux to basically let you skip a year _and she agreed._ You did this all so you could be with Kurt and your focus has been to be with him. You aren’t really focusing on your studies and yet _you are getting by_. Blaine, you are so talented it actually hurts to think about it. I love you and you’re one of my best friends but sometimes I get so jealous of you it makes me want to scream. Can you imagine what the rest of the school, who you are a stranger to, must be feeling?

“I’m not surprised that the other students hate you, they probably want to see what’s so special about you and I’m sure the teachers have high expectations because Mme. Tibideaux basically said you are the Golden Boy of NYADA.

“And Blaine, you’re letting her down.”

Blaine snapped his head to meet her and Rachel grabbed his hands again.

“She went out on a limb for you and extended a special privilege and you aren’t holding up your end of the bargain.”

“I would never think of you as Carmen Tibideaux’s defender, Rachel,” Blaine said, his voice hoarse.

“Just because I disagreed with her doesn’t take away the fact that she’s an icon and deserves my respect.” Rachel shrugged. “I know what it’s like to be given that special privilege. She gave it to me and Kurt, too, you know by letting us audition again. I’m just happy that I at least proved to everybody that I was worthy of that before we parted ways.

“No matter what happens between you and Kurt, don’t let her down Blaine. I know what that feels like and while I know I’m right for leaving, it still hurt doing it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have this idea where Blaine takes Rachel's words to heart and starts focusing on his studies and quickly proves that Carmen Tibideaux wasn't wrong about him. Of course this means Blaine and Kurt's relationship bites the dust, but I write Blam so no one who knows me should be at all surprised. I ran out of ideas after this scene ended so this was supposed to end here but now that I've seen Back-Up Plan, with the introduction of June, this little scene may have just gotten a second lease on life.


	3. No More Blainey Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What should have happened in S05E02 Tina in the Sky with Diamonds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used to like Tina and I have the biggest respect for Jenna Ushkowitz for making the most after being given so little. But I can't believe they just let what she did go. This is sorta another A Long Time Coming-type of fic.

“Hey Bling-Bling!”

Blaine grimaced hearing Tina’s cheerful greeting. He was at his locker getting the stuff he needed for his homework. He was hoping to avoid Tina and he almost made it out of school but here she was. He shoved his books back into his locker with an uncharacteristic show of anger and all but slammed his locker shut. He still couldn’t believe what Tina did! She dumped Sam in front of everyone...granted they aren’t actually dating (thank God!) so it’s not like she broke his heart or anything but to cast him away like that because she wants to win some stupid popularity contest decided by people she didn’t even like! And then to sing about it! It’s a good thing the bell rang so he had an excuse to leave because he may have just walked out.

“Hey Blainey-Days,” Tina jabbered excitedly as she drew up beside him, “so I was thinking we go over to your place and check out my options for prom dresses...”

“I don’t think so Tina,” Blaine said trying to keep his voice neutral, not wanting to make a scene but Tina just kept blathering on, ignoring him.

“...maybe in purple because I saw this gorgeous off-the-shoulder one in green but green really isn’t my color and purple just screams “royalty”, you know? Maybe we can get a similar cut but in purple? There was one in bronze and while metallics aren’t really me, this was just so—”

“Tina I’m not helping you pick a prom dress!” And if Blaine noticed the edge in his voice, then Tina definitely did. She stopped with a shocked and hurt expression on her face; but instead of making him feel guilty, it just fuelled Blaine’s anger as it proved just how self-centered Tina has become.

“Blaine...?”

“Do you really think I’m just going to ignore the fact that you just dumped Sam in front of all our friends?”

“Wait? What? Sam?” Tina looked shocked, and then to Blaine’s mounting fury she rolled her eyes and then made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “Oh please, it’s not like I broke his heart or anything. We aren’t together, Blaine,” she added in a tone like Blaine was six years old, “and while I know that to you everything is life-or-death when it comes to Sam, it’s really no big deal.”

Blaine looked at Tina hard and then shook his head. “I don’t know who you are anymore.”

“What is that supposed to mean?!” Tina, offended, practically shouts at Blaine, apparently not caring that she is about to make a scene.

“The Tina I knew cared more for her friends than some stupid popularity contest! The Tina who was my best friend would be sensitive enough not to publically dump one of her friends in the same room where his ex-girlfriend also dumped him—also in public!”

“Of course you’re upset! St. Samuel Fishlips had his feelings hurt! Whoop-de-doo! Here comes Sir Blaine the Valiant charging to the rescue!”

“Bullshit!” Blaine yelled back, not caring anymore if they were making a spectacle of themselves. “I would feel the same way if you did that to Ryder, Artie or to anyone in there! Because what you did in there? That was douche thing to do!”

“Easy for you to say! You’re Mr. Perfect! Everything gets handed to you! I have to fight for everything! Every solo! Every scrap of recognition! This was supposed to be _my_ year! I put up with Rachel’s and Santana’s crap but now it’s _my_ turn! _My_ turn to be lead! _My_ turn to be queen! It’s _mine_ dammit! I deserve this more than anyone and I’ll be damned if I let anyone get in my way!”

Tina has worked herself up into a fury and Blaine could see that she’s not backing down. He forced himself to calm down. He lets the silence grow and he can see she’s thrown off and confused by his sudden silence. She expected him to have shouted back and he would have but he doesn’t really see the point anymore. He arranges the strap of his bag and makes sure he has everything he needs (nothing ruins a good exit than having to come back to the scene because he forgot something) then he gives her his most scornful look.

“Well congratulations Tina...you’ve managed to become a bigger bitch than Santana and Rachel combined,” Blaine said just managing not to say it in a British accent and turned around and walked away.

Blaine saw that the corridors were empty as he walked to the parking lot. Hopefully that meant that his and Tina’s fight wasn’t observed and they just didn’t make asses of themselves. He dug into his bag for his car keys and he noticed his hands were shaking. One part of his brain was coldly assessing that it was either the adrenaline still pumping into him or his anger still affecting him; but the other part was more like “holyshitIjustcalledTinaabitch!toherface!TinaandIjustshoutedateachotherinschool!fuck!”

“Blaine?”

Blaine almost dropped his keys as he spun around to see a worried-looking Sam.

“Sam!” he said, rather stupidly. “Um...hey, was I supposed to give you a ride?” He asked lamely.

“No dude,” Sam said with a serious expression, “I have the car, it’s just that, um...”

“You heard?” Blaine asked with a sigh.

“Kinda hard not to,” Sam said with shrug.

“I’m surprised the whole school wasn’t there,” Blaine said, looking down at his hands...which were still shaking. He wondered if he would shake the nails off his fingers?

“They would have been, except Lipoff and Surette got into a huge fight over that red-headed Cheerio? Linda? Leslie? Lucy?”

“D-dana,” Blaine said absently, not noticing his stammer, instead he focused on forcing his fingers to form into fists hoping to keep them from shaking.

“Yeah, Dana, that’s right...dude, are you all right?” Sam asked grasping his shoulder.

“I j-j-just c-c-can’t-t-t s-s-st-t-top s-s-sh-sh-shak-k-k-ing,” Blaine said as he felt tears pool behind his eyes.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Sam immediately pulls Blaine into a hug. “It’s just the adrenaline. You worked yourself up and you tried to suppress it. It’s just trying to find an outlet. You must have been really pissed.”

“Y-yes,” Blaine said. He wanted to say more but he didn’t want to stammer so he allowed himself to relax in Sam’s arms instead. Wrapped in Sam’s embrace, he knew he was safe and his body started to relax. After a few minutes he squeezed Sam who understood and released Blaine.

“Thanks.”

“Blaine, dude, after what you did, defending me to Tina, it’s the least I could do.”

Blaine tries, but fails, to suppress a grimace. “That’s right. You heard.”

“Thanks Blaine, for standing up for me,” Sam says with a soft smile and a light punch to Blaine’s shoulder. “But Tina was right you know, it wasn’t like I was heart-broken or anything.”

“So not the point Sam,” Blaine answers back with his own smile and punch. “No one is allowed to treat my friends that way, not while I’m around.”

The two horse around a bit, boxing a bit, laughing, then go out to the parking lot together.

“So,” Sam says with a pensive look to his face. Blaine just looks up at him, waiting for Sam to continue.

“It looks like I don’t have a date for prom,” he finally says.

Blaine can’t help but roll his eyes and smile, “I think that’s been established. But don’t worry Sam, I’m sure any girl you ask would jump at the chance to go with you.”

“I don’t want to ask some random girl,” Sam said shrugging.

“Well I don’t feel like going either,” Blaine offers, “wanna have a bro-night instead? We can watch prom-disaster movies like Carrie and—”

“Well that’s the thing,” Sam bites his lips as he interrupts Blaine, “this is like our Senior Prom, we’re supposed to look back on this with fond memories and such so I kinda want to go but I don’t want to spend it with a stranger, even if she is a hot, red-headed Cheerio.”

“I thought Lipoff or Surette was taking her?” Blaine asked leaning on his car as the two finally made it there. He could see the Hummels’ old truck that Burt let Sam drive sometimes, two spaces away in the relatively empty parking lot.

“Both of them got suspended for fighting and are not allowed to go prom anymore and Lisa—”

“Dana.”

“—kept giving me the cow eyes.”

“Cow eyes?” Blaine asked in amusement.

“Focus, Blaine,” Sam said in seriousness and Blaine fought to keep from smiling...he failed but at least he tried. “The point is, I want to go with someone I already know, a friend, so I’ll have fun and not worry about being a good date to Gina—”

“Dana.”

“—even if she does have a great rack.”

“Well, the only girls you know well are in glee and Marley is going with Jake—but they are also kinda doing this weird, quadruple-date thing with Ryder and Unique—Artie is taking Kitty so I guess that leaves...Sugar?”

“True but if I’m going to go with a friend; I might as well go with the best one I have, right?” Sam dropped the semi-serious expression and Blaine could see the Evans smile starting to come out.

“Sam Evans,” he starts and can’t help but blush (oh traitorous face!), “are you asking me to be your date to prom?”

“Well,” Sam says smiling unabashedly now, “you are one of the prettiest Cheerios around even if Donna has a better rack.”

“Da—heh, close enough,” Blaine shrugs. “Pretty, huh?”

“Well, yeah,” Sam says rolling his eyes, “I got to keep up my rep, dude. I dated the Unholy Trinity and lived to talk about it. I can’t show up to my Senior Prom without the Cheerios captain on my arm.”

“Even if Dana has a better rack?”

“Who’s Dana?”

Blaine finally broke and started laughing. It didn’t help when Sam sincerely kept asking who Dana was. Sam finally gave up asking and waited until Blaine calmed down.

“So are you coming with me or what?”

“Of course Sam,” Blaine said fondly, “I think it’s a brilliant idea. Pick me up at seven? I expect a boutonniere.”

“Can you pick me up instead? Your car’s nicer,” Sam said pointing at the old truck.

“Fine,” Blaine said, pretending to be exasperated and he knew Sam saw right through it.

“And you better getter the button air thingie too because I have no idea what that is,” Sam added.

“You’re probably right,” Blaine mused.

“Hey, wanna match outfits?” Sam asked excitedly. “Maybe we can match your tie to my vest or something.”

“Wanna come over and look at tuxes and suits?”

“Follow me home so I can leave the car and I’ll ride to your place with you,” Sam said.

“Okay,” Blaine says as he unlocks his car remotely. Sam quickly jogs to his truck.

“Hey Blaine!”

Blaine turns to Sam as he opened his car door.

“Can we get a limo?”

Blaine grins and can’t help but chuckle as he answers, “Sure thing Sam!”

“And take me nice for dinner! Not Breadstix!”

“I thought _you_ were taking _me_!” Blaine shouted back.

Sam doesn’t answer just winks at Blaine and gets in the truck. Blaine rolls his eyes and laughs quietly as he gets in his car. At least now prom looks like it’s going to be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was rereading kaitlia777's fics (as I am wont to do) and came across her The First Night of the Rest of Their Lives again and I can see many similarities between this fic and that. I am completely not surprised by this, this is not a coincidence. Kaitlia777 has a huge influence on my work, she basically writes down stuff I want to happen to Blam, stuff I didn't even know I wanted but makes perfect sense when I read it in her fics. I also reread her stuff a lot so it should come as to no surprise that so many things get absorbed through osmosis and gets regurgitated in my stuff. So if you're wondering if this fic has taken stuff from kaitlia777, the answer is an absolute yes.


	4. Olympia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle between the Olympic Coven and the Volturi was terrifying but the Olympic Coven won, some say at too high a price. With the Volturi gone, they had to step forward and fill the power vacuum created with their destruction. And Bella finds herself thrust in the position as queen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy Smokes! Yes this is a Twilight fic. Don't laugh. Twilight got me started on fanfic and reading the good stuff and the bad stuff taught me a lot about storytelling.
> 
> This never went anywhere because by the time I started writing this I was already losing interest in this fandom.

"It's done."

Not for the first time I wonder at the coldness of Emmett's voice.  And I'm sure it won't be the last.  Of all the things that we have lost since that day, and we lost so many things, as these days pass, I find the loss of Emmett's joy to be one of the worst.  We need it, especially now.  It's funny, his laughter and his smiles were such a big part of who he was that their absence has made him almost a stranger to me.  A "stranger", now that is funny, considering he is one of the very few people I completely and fully trust.

"Good," I reply. I pause before asking the next question.  I always do.  I can't stand the thought of losing anyone else.  "Is everyone all right?"

"We're fine, Bella," Emmett says.  I expect him to sigh in frustration or answer in a clipped tone and sometimes I even hope that someday he might chuckle at my anxiety—but he doesn't.  He never does, he never does any of those things.  I would think that he would start to get a little irritated by this constant question.  He's never lost anyone when he leads these hunts.  He swore never to lose anyone again since that day and he never has.  He expects me to ask, though, he doesn't begrudge me that. "Quil got battered but he'll pull through.  Not his fault, Heidi was just too fast for him.  Lucky for him Jasper was faster.  I'll be sending most of the squad home.  Jasper and I will stick around for clean-up.  I'll call again tomorrow."

"All right Emmett.  Goodbye."

I put down my phone and look out the window.  Heidi's gone.  She was the last, the last of the Volturi.  I should feel something, maybe not joy exactly or triumph but at least some level of satisfaction.  Nothing.  I don't feel anything but the gaping hole where my heart should be.

From my window I see Carmen and Renesmee in the garden.  My heart aches when I see her bronze hair glinting when stray moonlight hits it.  Perhaps my heart is here after all, it still aches, doesn't it?  If something feels pain, there must be something there to feel it, right?  I'm grateful that my daughter didn't inherit his gift.  I would never wish her to know how her very presence makes me feel like screaming at the world.  I would never wish her to know that when she smiles at me with that crooked smile how I want to turn around and lash out, annihilate anything I can get my hands on so that what my eyes see can match the oblivion inside.

But that would not be fair to her, my beautiful Renesmee.  She may unintentionally keep my grief fresh but she is what keeps me sane.  Her smile is crooked like his but there's a twist in there that's all her own.  Her hair is the same bronze but those curls and the length are all hers.  I failed my daughter.  I allowed this cruel world to hurt her.  I swear to myself again, as I have since I held his killer's head in my hands, it would do so only once.  I would do anything to make sure that she will never be hurt again.  I would obliterate anything that would even think to do so.

I hear Garrett enter.  I speak to him without turning my head, keeping my eyes on my daughter.

"It’s done," I say, unintentionally repeating Emmett's words.  Knowing what he'll ask next, I turn to face him and tell him what he really wants to know.  "Kate and the others will be back tomorrow."

Garrett's shoulders lose some of the stiffness that's been on him since Emmett and the rest left three weeks ago; when they finally got a solid lead on Heidi's whereabouts.  It chafed him to stay here while the others went on the hunt but we needed at least one of the fighters to stay here for defense.  It made better sense to send Kate instead of Garrett.  While Heidi's ability works—perhaps I should say _worked_ —on both sexes, it was blunted by those who were mated and those of the same sex, which is why Kate, Jasper and the wolves that were imprinted went with Emmett.

"Emmett and Jasper are doing the clean-up?"

"Yes," I say, "they'll be back in a day or two depending how many loose ends Heidi left behind."

Garrett nods his head.  "So, it's finally over."

I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows in surprise, Garrett is usually pretty savvy.  How can he think just because the Volturi are gone that it's over?

Garrett sees my reaction.  "I know, I know," he sighs. "The destruction of the Volturi has left a power vacuum—"

"—which we, for better or for worse, are filling up," I say interrupting him. "Better us than someone else."

"Bella," he starts gently. "Do we really need to?"

"Garrett you know the arguments better than anyone else here," I say, not letting my exasperation color my voice.  "The Volturi, evil as they were, did keep some sort of order among us.  We need to keep that order in place for everyone's sakes.  I don't want to do it but as things stand we are the only ones who can actually pull it off."

I turn back to the window and watch Renesmee and Carmen sitting under the tree doing needlepoint.  I can't help but smile.  Renesmee hates needlepoint but it's useful in teaching her control, as well as patience.  I'll be damned if I let anyone put themselves in a position of power that will allow them to hurt her.

"Besides, some of us have nothing better to do," I quip, at least I try to.  It falls flat.  For some of us, knowing that we'll be facing eternity alone, we need to do something to occupy our time, something that will consume us so we can distract ourselves from the emptiness inside.

Garrett flinches.  I feel bad for making him feel bad.  It's not his fault that his mate survived.  I smile up at him and reach over and lightly touch his arm, trying to convey my apology for making him feel uneasy.  He seems startled and blinks rapidly, then lets out a big unnecessary breath.  That reaction throws me a bit but he gives me his lopsided grin and I know we're both all right.

"I'll do my rounds," he says. "It's about time to relieve Jacob."  His grin suddenly widens and he takes a step back and makes an elaborate bow.  "By your leave?"

I roll my eyes at his display.  "Go on, get out of here and do something useful."

He chuckles as he walks out of the room.  I follow him a minute later.  I head to the kitchen to prepare dinner.  Embry and Seth weren't eating here tonight so I will just be cooking for Jacob and Renesmee. 

I hate to admit it but I was more than a little disturbed by Garrett's bow.  I know he was just teasing but I have noticed that people have been treating me differently.  The Cullens, despite being whittled down, is still the largest vampire coven in the world, especially now that the Volturi are no more.  We may not have anything like the Volturi Guard but ever since we merged with the Denali coven and strengthened our alliance with the Quileute wolves, we are more than capable of carrying out their former duties.  In doing so, we may have taken on other things as well, the perception of being the "Royal Family" of the vampire world.

The thought makes me uncomfortable.  It doesn't help that people think that I lead the Cullens and by extension what is now called the "Olympic Council".  Vampire Queen.  I shake my head at the thought.  This is why these dinners are so important to me.  It grounds me.  It's something simple where I can try to be normal.  Just a mother and her daughter having dinner with a friend…who's imprinted on her daughter, who looks like she's eight even though she's only two years old…I should have stopped at "friend".  Well if Jake is good at one thing, it's to remind who I am.

-oOo- 

Garrett walks swiftly out of the house.  He immediately picks up Jacob's trail and walks towards him.  It's funny how one can quickly become used to the smell.  It's still not pleasant but it's hardly what he'd list as the worst things in the world to smell.

Garrett was surprised at how relieved he was learning that Kate was safe.  He hadn't realized until that moment how worried he was until Bella told him that she was all right.  Well, judging from Bella, Emmett and…him—he didn't really want to think about him—losing one's mate is not something one would like to go through. 

It is interesting to Garrett thinking about how differently they each try to cope with their losses.  He was most surprised at Emmett, seeing him become almost completely emotionless, choosing not to feel anything so he didn't have to feel the pain.  Garrett thought about Jasper telling him one day that he can barely feel anything from Emmett at all.  It was that testimony from Garrett that finally convinced Bella to let Emmett go after Heidi with the rest.  Jasper was sure that Heidi would have nothing to use.  Garrett remembered that day; it was a tense moment, when Bella basically forbade Emmett the chance to go after Heidi.  Garrett was sure that Emmett was going to snap but all he did was stand there patiently.  After a minute, Bella just looked at Jasper and Jasper nodded.  It was a test!  And brilliantly done, too.

Garrett's admiration for Bella was no secret.  His love for Kate is eternal and absolute but he can't help but feel a little love for his queen as well.  Now that is funny.  The revolutionary has become a royalist.  But this was how Bella coped with her loss.  She couldn't protect Edward, so now she's decided to protect everyone else.  Garrett thought back when she reached out and touched his arm.  He wonders again at her innocence, that she has absolutely no idea of her effect on people.  Her beauty coupled with the strength of will and the courage not to close off her heart despite her loss just so she can ably serve the remaining members of her family.  A family, Garrett thinks, that I have somehow become a part of.

His ruminations are interrupted, he can sense that Jacob is nearby. 

"Ho wolf!"  He calls out.  "Anything to report?"

The monstrous russet wolf practically fades in from the surrounding woods.  As Jacob shifts to his human form, Garrett still wonders how something so huge could be so quiet, or so invisible.  If it weren't for the scent, he would never know Jacob was there.

"Everything's quiet," Jacob says.  "Peter and Charlotte are overdue but only by a couple of hours.  I'm sure they went off to hunt again just in case."

Garrett nods.  He sympathizes with them being a new vegetarian himself.  "I'll give them a call if I don't hear from them or see them soon."

"Have you heard from Emmett?"

Garrett breaks out into a smile.  "Kate's fine, Jake, thanks for asking."

Jacob smiles warmly back at Garrett.  Jacob and Garrett had quickly become friends and he was relieved for him.

"Good.  Well then I'll head on in."  With a grin Jacob quickly shifts back to a wolf and lopes towards the house.

As Garrett starts his patrol, he wonders again at the changes Bella and the others are slowly instituting.  The huge changes appeal to his revolutionary spirit; however he can't help but feel a small twinge seeing as he's now on the side of the establishment.

Ah, but that's the true revolutionary, isn't it?  Being an agent of change?


	5. Brand New Ground Alternate Epiphany

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Brand New Ground was still in its infancy (and planned to be no more than a 5-6 chapter fic), this was the big reveal I had in mind. We obviously chose not to go this way but I thought you guys might get a kick out of it. If you haven't read Brand New Ground, you might not get it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously BNG has not been updated yet so for those of you loyal readers, here's a little something for you. It's not quite a new chapter and this bit is no longer valid but you might like it anyway. TheFauxMe happily gave her okay to post this so I hope you enjoy it since this is almost entirely my idea of how the big reveal would have happened.
> 
> This is an alternate version of how Blaine and Sam learn of their feelings for each other.

Blaine slowly woke up. He could feel the soft, sheets rumpled against him. There was a warm, solid weight on his right side. _Sam._ He could smell him. Sam smelled of soap and a very faint but sweet remnant of his sister's baby cologne (which he would grab to use on his way out of the house, usually because he was running late) mixed with scent that was just 'Sam'.  

Blaine opened his eyes and he was rewarded with the sight of a sleeping Sam beside him. His chest slowly rising up and down. Blaine shifted on his side and propped his head up with right arm and with his left hand, slowly placed his palm on Sam's chest. More than the silky smoothness of his skin, more than the tightness of his muscles which were defined even in this state of relaxation, it was the sheer _warmth_ of him that he wondered at. Sam was like a sun in human form. It seemed that the day agreed with him, a ray of sunshine peeked over his window and turned Sam's blond hair into gold and gave his fading golden tanned skin a glow. 

 _I'm so screwed,_ he thought. Tears pooled in his eyes. He was in love with the most infuriating, the kindest, most selfless, most beautiful man in the world. And he would never be loved the same way. He didn't doubt that Sam loved him. After everything Sam's done for him, he could lose faith in gravity first before he ever doubted Sam, he knew that Sam loved him. But Sam could never be _in love_ with him and after Sam, how could anyone else compare? A sad smile twisted his mouth. _You ruined me for anyone else you know, but I don't care if that's the price for having you these past months. So worth it._

Because Blaine knew it was going to end now. The charade has to stop. Not because it served its purpose, which it surprisingly did—Sam is never going to let him forget it—but because it had become real to him. The whole day yesterday he actually forgot that he and Sam were only pretending to be in a relationship. It's become dangerous. 

Sam snorted in his sleep and turned towards Blaine, unconsciously shuffling closer but Blaine used that movement to slip out of bed. He quietly walked out of his apartment and made his way across the roof. He shivered in the morning chill but faced the sun rising and the sun's rays warmed him a bit. 

Blaine knew that in his case it was too late. He had already lost his heart to the blond. That danger had past. The danger was not his heart but his equilibrium. If he wanted a relationship with Sam, he needed to put some distance between them because he was so scared that he'd do something to scare him off for good. Besides, it might be too late for Blaine, but he loved Sam enough to want him to be happy. And what girl would have him if they thought he was taken? 

He flashed to the memory of Sam and Rachel singing together and how they smiled at each other and the pain was like a knife to his gut. He almost bent double as he wrapped his arms around himself. _Oh this is bad. If this is how I feel over a girl I actually like for him! I can only imagine how bad it would be if he ended up with someone like Mercedes or, God forbid, Santana..._  

Blaine was brought out of his reverie as a pair of strong arms enveloped him, wrapping them both in his quilt. He instinctively leaned back and could feel Sam's bare chest against his back. He started to soak up the warmth as Sam tightly wrapped the thick quilt around them both. 

“I woke up and you were gone,” Sam said simply. Blaine could hear the unspoken question. 

“I think we've gone as far as we can with this, haven't we?” Blaine asked, proud at how steady his voice was. He refused to look at Sam, he knew how well the blond can read his face. 

“Are you breaking up with me?” Sam asked with weak chuckle. 

“It's time, Sam,” Blaine said as firmly as he could. He had to do this, for Sam. For himself. He blinked when Sam's embrace got tighter. He could feel Sam's breath by his ear. Sam took a deep breath, and then another one. _What is the matter with him?_  

“Why?” Sam's voice was steady but Blaine could feel the tension all over Sam's body. He sighed, and was troubled that it had come to this. They were both in too deep, this was proof. How else to explain why Sam was so upset over a _pretend_ relationship? He's confusing Sam. 

He pulled away. Or at least tried to but Sam wouldn't let him go. “Sam,” he said quietly and with a sigh Sam let him go. He took a few steps and composed his reply. 

“We've accomplished what we set out to do,” Blaine said. “Believe me when I tell you I'm really grateful but the schoolyear is ending and, and I hate to admit it, and we managed to keep Lipoff and the rest off our backs with this crazy idea of yours. But we should end it because it isn't fair to you, Sam. You should have the chance for a real relationship and you won't get that chance if people think you're with me.” 

Blaine kept himself still. He was afraid that if he relaxed for a little bit that he would lose it. There it was done. He had said it. When Sam spoke he nearly started because his voice was so near, Sam had moved closer without Blaine noticing. 

“This pretend relationship we have?” Sam started, “This was better than any of the real relationships I've had. Why can't it just go on?” 

“Oh I want it to,” Blaine said before he could stop himself. He closed his eyes. _Ah shit. Oh well, maybe it's better this way. Just lay it all out. He deserves the truth and this is **Sam**. He would never hurt me. _ Blaine opened his eyes and, unmindful of the tears beginning to pool there, turned to face Sam for the first time since he got up from bed. 

He almost lost his train of thought, though, when he beheld him. Sam was standing on the roof, sunlight glinting off his blond hair, he had the quilt around his body but his bare shoulders and chest were exposed and early morning light making his skin look like gold. He knew he would remember this vision of Sam forever. 

“And that's the problem,” Blaine finally continued. “It's become too real to me Sam. I'm finding it harder and harder to remember that we're only pretending and that's not fair, to me or to you,” Blaine took a deep breath and released it. _Now for the finale_ , he thought. 

“And because I love you.” 

Sam didn't move, just stood there. Blaine took courage that Sam didn't run screaming from him and ploughed on because it had become important to him that Sam understood where he was coming from, and where he was going. 

“It's okay, Sam,” he said with a sad smile, he could feel the warmth on his cheek as his tears finally overflowed. _Damn tears._ “I don't expect anything from you. Really I don't. I know that you can't love me the same way and that's okay, it really is. But you see why we can't continue on, right?” Blaine begged, “we've strayed from the original agreement. It feels like I'm cheating by being in this relationship when my feelings have changed. I broke Rule Five, Sam," Blaine smiled through his tears, "I'm not the same Blaine and I don't see you as that Sam." 

He took another breath and wiped his tears with the back of his hand. “These past months have been the best for me, it really has.” He snorted, “That is kinda pathetic, isn't it? That the memories I'll cherish the most is about something that we pretended to do; but there you go.” 

“I just wanted you to know. The truth. Because you deserve it, God, you deserve that at least. And it won't be weird, I'll do everything in my power to not make it weird because losing you...” And now Blaine really had to stop and his eyes blurred as the traitorous tears finally came threatening to burst like a deluge. 

He suddenly felt warm hands on his face, thumbs wiping away the tears and as he blinked his eyes clear there stood Sam in front of him. The quilt had fallen down to his feet. And he had the softest, gentlest smile he ever saw. 

“You, as my pretend boyfriend, were good for me and treated me better than any of my real girlfriends ever did,” Sam said to him earnestly. “Do you think I would have done this for _anyone_ else other than you? You're _special_ to me Blaine, you would never, _ever_ lose me. Okay?” 

Blaine nodded, the knot in his gut started to unravel. He reached up and held on to Sam's hands and he started to breathe again. But Sam's next words caused him to stop breathing. 

“It became real to me, too.” 

And Blaine looked at Sam, really _looked_ at him and their eyes met and Blaine gasped. 

"I have a confession to make, too," Sam said moving forward, "I broke Rule Five months ago." 

“So I guess I'm pathetic, too, then because these past few months have been the best bits of my life as well.” And before Blaine could blink, Sam leaned forward and kissed him gently. Sam pulled back just a bit and looked deep into his eyes. “I just want you to know that I love you, too.” 

 -?- 

Sam didn't know if he's gay or not, honestly he just didn't care. As far as he's concerned he's in love with Blaine and if that means he's gay then he's gay. He's not interested in making out with another dude just to clarify that issue. 

That's what Kurt doesn't seem to understand. Sam has always been a one-woman (or man in this case) man. Even with his exes, when he was with them—even if his feelings weren't as deep as they are now for Blaine—he was only with them. It never occurred to him look at anyone else. So now that Sam was with Blaine, he won't be looking at other guys or girls. Just the thought of thinking about a time he won't be with Blaine was upsetting for him that he won't even consider it. So the point is moot. 

But Kurt said that it was important to identify if he's really gay or just gay for Blaine. Kurt had walked away in a huff when he said that if it makes him feel better, Sam will identify himself as gay. "So not the point!" Kurt had shouted as he stormed off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to think of it as interesting look at the writing process, especially when you are collaborating. We had the plot (fake relationship), we had the twist (they fall in love while pretending to be in a relationship) and the epiphany. But the getting to those points took us to a different place and the epiphany that I wrote a long, long time ago no longer fit. I think BNG is a much richer story because of where we ended up taking it and I don't mind that we aren't using this scene (even then it was only a possibility and not set in stone) but I'm still glad I have a chance to share it anyway.


	6. Tumbleweed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaine wakes Sam from a recurring bad dream.

“Sam! Sam, wake up!”

Blaine breathes a sigh of relief when he sees his best friend’s eyes open. There’s a sheen of sweat on Sam’s skin and the blankets are all twisted and his pillows are all scattered.

“Did I wake you?”

Blaine’s heart pings a bit as Sam’s first thought is for other people, even when waking from a nightmare, his first concern is if was a bother.

“No, you didn’t,” Blaine says honestly. “I couldn’t sleep, and a good thing too. You were biting your lip so hard, if I didn’t wake you, you could have cut yourself.”

Sam’s hands quickly goes to his mouth and suddenly he can feel the soreness. “I guess I didn’t want to wake you up like last time.”

“I think you’ll want to clean up a bit, you do that and I’ll get some ice for your mouth, okay?” Blaine says with concern. Sam just nods and is relieved he can get out of his sticky shirt.

When Blaine gets back to his room, he sees that Sam had already stripped the bed and changed the sheets and pillow cases. Shaking his head fondly at his friend, he knocks lightly on the slightly open bathroom door where he can hear Sam in the shower and puts the ice bucket down on his desk.

“Sam I’ll just take the sheets down to the laundry room. Ice is on my desk.”

Not waiting to hear Sam’s response, Blaine takes his old sheets as well as his and Sam’s pile of dirty laundry to the basement.

By the time he gets back to his room, Sam is sitting on the bed watching a Simpsons rerun while holding an ice cube wrapped in a small towel to his bruised lips. Blaine joins him on his bed but takes his laptop and starts working on his term paper instead. He knows better than to push Sam, if Sam wants to talk about it he will.

It took a bit longer than he thought when Sam finally lowers the volume. Blaine quickly flips the screen closed and puts the laptop back on his desk and turns to face Sam.

“It was the same dream…well not the _same_ dream but it was about the same thing again.”

Sam falls quiet and Blaine just sits there quietly, not moving, not saying a thing. Ever since Sam started spending the weekends at Blaine’s house, Blaine learned that Sam gets bad dreams pretty often. And Blaine learned quickly the best way to get Sam to talk about it because he learned the hard way that if he doesn’t, the dream comes back worse than before.

“My family and I were back in Lima and I was a sophomore again but everyone in the family knew that what had happened before, that we were going to lose our house. So Dad called for a family meeting, I remember protesting because you weren’t there and we couldn’t have a family meeting if you were absent. Dad told me that until I met you again, you wouldn’t remember being part of the family yet.”

Blaine smiled at that. It always warmed him that Sam considered him family.

“So Dad said that this time, we’ll be smarter and anticipate things so we’ll give up Stacey’s and Stevie’s rooms and have them bunk in with me and with two less rooms, we don’t need to spend as much on heating and cleaning and stuff. And just like that, the rooms in the house disappeared and there was a bunk-bed in my room. We went around the house and got rid of things that we didn’t need…or even have in real life. You know how it is in dreams, right? Like we went up to the attic and found out that there was an indoor pool and a sauna which is why our water bill was so high. Anyway, we cut down on a lot of stuff and Stevie and Stacey and I would have fun in my room, you know? And, this is a dream, I would become a kid their age when all three of us are in the room together so the space is bigger and I can join them in our games. But Mom put a stop to it because she didn’t want the twins to learn how to reverse the process and become teens before they were ready.”

“Anyway, so I promised Mom that I wouldn’t but it was so much fun that I did it anyway and we had a blast. Then I wondered why Mom and Dad couldn’t hear the noise we were making. So I told the twins to wait cos I wanted to check up on Mom and Dad. They wanted to come but I told them not to because they were only kids and Mom and Dad’s room was a grown-up room. So Stevie and Stacey turned into teens just like Mom warned me they would, except Stacey looked like Kitty and Stevie looked like Ryder and I told him not to be like Ryder because Ryder isn’t blond but Stevie/Ryder held up a lemon and said he’ll take care of it. And I knew, like how you know things in dreams? That Ryder is my brother.”

“So we crept into Mom and Dad’s room and you know what we found?”

Blaine heard the slight tremor in Sam’s voice and he gingerly touched Sam’s hand and apparently it was the right move because Sam relaxed a bit.

“Their room was huge. It was the size of a football field! There was grass and go-kart race course and I saw at least three houses and I knew that it was one each for them and one they lived in together. And they had a farm! They were growing stuff to eat! And this is where I remember I got mad because you know how my parents always made sure that no matter what happened that we had a roof over our head and food in our stomachs? Well, when we were living in the motel here in Lima, I would sometimes skip breakfast or pretend that I had already eaten dinner just so Stevie and Stacey could have a bit more or so Mom or Dad could have because they needed to find work…I know my parents knew I wasn’t eating and things were so bad that they didn’t question it. They were grateful.  I know that. And in my dream they were eating their fill while I was starving. I wanted to shout at them but I didn’t want to wake you and I didn’t want to scare you away so I kept my mouth shut.”

“How do you feel?” Blaine gently asks Sam, aware that Sam was done. Sam puts the towel with the ice cube on top of the open ice bucket beside him and with a nonchalance that Blaine sees through answers Blaine honestly, because he can never be anything but honest to Blaine.

“Ashamed.”

“Why…I mean what was there to be ashamed of?” Blaine learned that Sam was more open to talking about his dreams if Blaine phrased his questions without sounding like he was judging Sam.

“My parents were not eating out or having dinners behind our backs. I _know_ that. I feel like an ungrateful ass for even thinking it.”

Blaine suspects he knows what’s bothering Sam. It’s a feeling he’s had to wrestle with himself. He thinks Sam trusts him enough so risks being forthright.

“You’re mad at your folks, aren’t you?”

Sam looks up at Blaine and Blaine sees the denial on Sam’s lips but he never says it, instead his eyes begin to tear up and Blaine sees his hands begin to shake. Sam jerkily nods in agreement and starts to crumple in on himself but Blaine moves faster. He grabs Sam and holds him tight. He can feel Sam’s powerful arms wrap around him. Blaine’s mouth is at Sam’s ear and he uses that to his advantage.

“You were starving yourself, Sam and it hurt you,” he says with clear tone. “You had to learn something some of us learn, if we’re lucky, when we we’re older. That our parents are human. That they don’t always know what to do. That they fail.” Blaine can feel Sam shuddering against him.

“I bet…I bet that this was the first time they ever let you down, right?” Blaine takes a risk by pulling slightly away from Sam’s embrace so he can look at Sam. His heart aches when he sees Sam’s tear-streaked face. “They always loved you and did right by you, didn’t they? This was the first time that couldn’t make things better?”

When Sam nodded Blaine hugged him again. This time they were more gentle with each other, the urgency from before was no longer there.

“You’re lucky in a way Sam because that means you had the childhood most of us dreamed of. I know you know that it wasn’t their fault. You father works really hard and it was no fault of his that he lost his job or that he couldn’t find one right away.”

“But Sam, it’s okay to be angry, too.” Blaine can feel Sam calming down and listening. That’s what was so great about Sam, he really _listens_. “There’s a…I guess you can say contract between parents and their children, and one of the clauses of that contract is that your parents are to take care of you until you can take care of yourself.”

“They didn’t live up to their side of the bargain, Sam, through no fault of their own,” Blaine quickly adds, not wanting Sam to think that Blaine thought Mr. and Mrs. Evans were bad parents because they weren’t. “But even if it wasn’t their fault, they still failed you and for a while, you had to step in and take care of the family in their place. You were sixteen, Sam, you shouldn’t have had to do that. But you did.”

Sam was still now, his breath was even but though his arms were still tight around Blaine, it wasn’t gripping him that hard anymore. Everything he said until this point, while true, wasn’t really important. It just gave time for Sam to let all that out so he can be calm and be ready to understand.

“What you are confusing are your feelings and your behavior,” Blaine hopes that Sam is calm enough now to really hear him because this is the important bit. “You have a right to feel angry and you shouldn’t be ashamed of that. The thing is Sam, you didn’t take out your anger at them because, really, they don’t deserve it, _and you didn’t_ ; so there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Blaine pulls back and takes Sam’s face in his hands so that Sam would look at him and he could look at Sam’s eyes.

“If you had taken out that anger at them, then yes, the shame would be justified but you didn’t Sam, you knew that’s not where that anger should go. Anger isn’t a source of shame, Sam, it’s what you do with it. Do you understand?”

Blaine kept quiet and waited for Sam’s response. He hopes that tonight would be the night and they can put this particular night terror to bed for good…no pun intended. And there it is: that little light in Sam’s eyes. And even as Sam answered him Blaine knew that Sam _got it_ and he understood!

“Yes,” Sam smiles as he answers Blaine and it reflects the smile in Blaine’s face. “Thank you.”

Blaine hugs Sam hard one last time and kisses him roughly on the side of his head. “You’re very welcome.”

“How did you get so smart anyway?” Sam asks. He just settles beside him, keeping one arm loosely around Blaine’s waist as he sits back up on the bed, pulling Blaine close.

“Therapy,” Blaine says with rueful grin. “Unlike yours, my parents messed up our contract when I was a lot younger than sixteen.”

“But you guys are okay, now, right?” Sam asks worriedly. He knows that Blaine and his parents aren’t close, not all families are as tight as his own, and he knew that. But Blaine didn’t seem to hate or dislike his parents.

“We’re…better,” Blaine says with a genuine smile. “We work at it. We aren’t perfect but we’re…better.”

“Good.”

“Besides, according to my best friend, who is very smart himself, I have nothing to worry about because if the Andersons go bust, I’m also an Evans so I have a back-up family.” Blaine says with a grin.

But instead of laughing, Sam just looks at him seriously and says, “You’re absolutely right.”

Blaine melts a bit…okay a whole lot…and can’t help but smile at his best friend. “Thank you, Sam.”

Sam kisses the top of Blaine’s head and they both turn to watch the TV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This…did not go where I thought it would. This was going to be a prologue of sorts that would lead to this idea I had about Blam and suddenly this happened. Not that I'm displeased or anything…but it's definitely unexpected.
> 
> So it will kinda have a sequel…sorta…if I can make the original idea fit where this thing went.
> 
> It will stay here until I can figure out a way to make it work with the original idea...which isn't a big one either.


	7. Hell Hath No Fury

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaine reacts differently when Kurt rejects his call after winning as McKinley class president.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this may be the beginning of the end for me with regards to Klaine. While I was never a Klaine shipper, I was very supportive of it, frankly because it meant that Darren would be sticking around. Then they changed the dynamics of the relationship, and they did so for no good reason. It started in S3 but it wasn't until this moment that I saw how unfairly the writers were treating Blaine in this relationship. This was only proven to be true when it's taken as canon on the show that Blaine is solely the reason why they broke up in the first place. Blaine made a mistake, but the show treats it like Kurt was the perfect boyfriend and he never is held accountable for neglecting and ignoring Blaine. By all means, crucify Blaine for cheating, but at the same time, don't whitewash Kurt's faults.
> 
> I wrote this as almost a visceral response to that. In fact, this is pretty much what I would do if I were in Blaine's position. It didn't go anywhere as it wasn't really a story or a start of one, more like something I wish had happened instead.

Blaine looks at the phone in his hand. He couldn’t believe it. Did Kurt just reject his call? The cheers and laughter around him seem to mock him. Absolute strangers were happy for him; they wished him well and offered their well-wishes while the person most important to him couldn’t be bothered to answer his call.

Blaine tried to find an excuse, maybe Kurt didn’t realize how important this evening was? But then that only made Blaine angrier because, of course he didn’t know because he never asked what was happening in Blaine’s life! He couldn’t remember the last time Kurt asked him how his day went! Did Kurt even know he ran for student council?!

Contrary to his demeanor as a cool, unflappable guy, Blaine actually had a particularly short fuse. It’s part of the reason why he cultivated such a “dapper” persona. Blaine is aware that he has a quick temper and is always on his guard to stay calm so that he wouldn’t lose it. Fortunately while Blaine’s anger is flashfire-quick, it also ebbs away just as fast. He only needs to control the immediate reaction because usually his anger goes away on its own pretty swiftly.

This time it’s different. A cold fury sweeps through him as he clenches his phone and he can see the whiteness of his knuckles. The other thing he notices is the crystal-clear clarity of his thoughts. Usually when his temper is triggered he normally cannot think and he acts before he realizes anything has happened. This is why he strives to stay in control. But right now his mind is working overtime and he can see himself making connections at lightning speed. And one of those connections he’s made is that Kurt doesn’t think that _he_ is important. That Lima, life in McKinley and Blaine are not worth his time, or strike his interest.

Not long after arriving in New York all they’ve talked about are his and Rachel’s loft, the surrounding neighborhood, this little store around the corner that has the best bagels, living in Bushwick, the highs and lows of traveling by subway, Isabelle Wright, Vogue.com, the people working in Vogue.com, the people who call Vogue.com, the people who work in the same building but not necessarily work in Vogue.com, the clothes, the gossip, what Isabelle said the other day, what Dana in accounts wore yesterday, what Giles said about Kenah who broke up with Friedrich so she can get back together with Gretchen who had a one-night stand with Julia who did that to make Warner jealous because he left her to be with Giles. Not to mention Rachel and Brody and NYADA and Callbacks and this apparently _amazing_ shop that has the most _amazing_ clothes at _amazing_ prizes.

Blaine doubts Kurt knows what classes Blaine is taking. On the other hand Blaine could walk into Vogue tomorrow and be able to settle in like he’s been there all year.

“Blaine?”

On one level, Blaine could feel himself shaking and he can feel the tension in his body, even the heat of tears of frustration and anger behind his eyes, yet at the same time he is coolly observing these things, almost like he’s watching himself from afar.

“Blaine, are you okay?”

Kurt is a liar. Kurt lied to him. He promised Blaine that they’ll work it out, that the distance won’t matter. That all they had to do was remember how important they are to each other. Blaine’s fury intensifies as he remembers the dropped calls, the rejected calls, how he’s put on hold more often than not and sometimes, most times, Kurt doesn’t even come back. The missed Skype dates, or rescheduled at Kurt’s convenience with no thought if Blaine had plans…to the point that Blaine had actually stopped making plans with other people!

Blaine is used to being ignored. He is used to being taken for granted. His parents love him in an abstract way but Blaine knows that he was an accident. His father already had Cooper to carry the family name and Blaine’s mother didn’t want children, she married his father precisely because he already had Cooper and wouldn’t require her to bear more children. Things changed briefly after the Sadie Hawkins Incident, when Blaine was the center of attention. Although after transferring to Dalton, things quickly went back to normal. However Blaine was a star in Dalton and got all the attention he wanted or needed.

Kurt was supposed to be different. He chose to be with Blaine. They chose to be together. He’s not supposed to ignore him or take him for granted. He’s not supposed to be like Cooper! He’s not supposed to be like his parents! But he’s exactly like them! He’s no better than them!

“Blaine!”

Blaine suddenly focused into a pair of very worried green eyes. Sam. It was Sam. Sam who looked very worried and very frightened. It was quiet. Why is it so quiet?

Blaine looked around and noticed that they were in the parking lot and Sam had his hands on his arms and was apparently shaking him.

“What’s wrong Sam?”


	8. Rumor Has It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> YOU are the gossip queen of McKinley and those glee kids have more drama than all the other cliques in the school combined!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the first things I wrote and I wanted to experiment, writing it in the 2nd person. Needless to say I got stuck fast. I wanted to immerse the reader into the world of Glee but finding it difficult not to give that person a name or any kind of description, even gender! So it petered out into nothing.
> 
> This is set in S2. Blaine transferring to McKinley was just wishful thinking on my part, that's how old this fic is.

“So is it true?” 

You look up about to take a bite out of your sandwich when you see Tina sit in front of you.  “Hey Tina,” you say and take a bite from your sandwich.  With Tina here you know you aren't going to get another chance. 

“So is it true?” she asks impatiently.  She has an intense look on her face and she's unconsciously leaning towards you.  You guess she's heard then.  You sigh and take another bite, you figure you might as well seeing as you won't get another chance until after Tina leaves. 

“Is this about Kurt?” you ask just managing to get the words out, your mouth full. 

“Yes!  Is it true about him and that guy from Columbus?” 

“Well, technically he's from Dublin but—” 

“Oh my God, so it _is_ true?!”  Tina interrupts.  As Tina waits impatiently you take a sip from your coke to wash down two bites of sandwich before replying. 

“Tina, you haven't told me exactly what is that you're wondering is true or not.” 

Tina rolls her eyes.  “Don't be cryptic.  Of course I'm asking if Kurt is dating that guy from Columbus.” 

“Aren't you two friends?” you ask instead of answering.  You are pleased that she came to you for gossip.  Everyone in McKinley comes to you, since you are the undisputed master of information in this school.  However, to keep that title you just don't give information away, at least without getting some in return.  Most people don't even realize when you've pumped them for information. 

“Of course we are,” Tina sighs. “But we haven't had a chance to hang around much.  Not since he and Blaine started going out.”  You file that little tidbit away as you focus on what else Tina is saying.  “Mercedes is off doing God-knows-what and I know she's not with Kurt.  And without them or Brittany, it's kinda awkward hanging out with Artie with Mike, you know?” 

“Mercedes is AWOL?” you asked intrigued.  The Artie-Tina-Mike thing is old news.  Mercedes being AWOL is new.  Mercedes is not the wilting flower-type, if she's hiding from her best friends; it probably means she's dating someone she thinks her friends wouldn't approve of.  You chide yourself a little, telling yourself that it's not always about boys but then you think about it a little more.  No, it's _always_ about boys. 

“Yeah, she leaves right after class ends, or right after rehearsals.  We usually have a movie night on Saturday and she's ditched us twice the last two times.  But she claims nothing is going on...”  She looks at you funny.  “Do you know what's going on with her?” 

“We're here to talk about Kurt, remember?” you deflect.  You can't have them thinking that you don't know what's going on.  And you're right; Tina's attention is now back on Kurt. 

“He's an idiot if he's sneaking behind Blaine's back,” she says with huff. 

“Look,” you say.  “All I know is that my sister's roommate, Sharelle?  She saw you guys perform at Regionals and totally crushed on that tall guy in the Warblers, so she recognized Kurt.  She says she saw Kurt having coffee with this guy she knows from Ohio State.  She thought it was sweet that they were being open about being affectionate to each other in public.” 

“Affectionate?  How?” 

“Well, they were holding hands at the table and when they left they hugged,” you say with a shrug.  “I know Sharelle, she's not prone to exaggeration.  She says this guy is out and part of the OutLaws, a GLBT group at the university.  Maybe it's not a date, maybe he's just getting some, I don't know, information on gay rights or something.” 

“You think?” 

“I dunno...wanna see his pic?” 

“You have his picture?!” Tina exclaims. 

“Of course!” you say rolling your eyes.  “Girl, it's like you don't even know me.”  You scroll through your phone's gallery until you find the pic that Sharelle sent you.  You pass it over to Tina and use the opportunity to take another bite out of your sandwich. 

“He's cute,” Tina says uncertainly. 

You look at her and say, “From your tone I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.”

 She looks at you then smiles weakly. “I don't either.” 

oOo 

You hear them before seeing them.  The kids from New Directions.  You can't help but smile a little.  You have to admit, you kinda like them.  You admire them for doing something they love even if it's not the most popular thing to do.  Plus, they have more drama than the kids at the jazz band _and_ the Cheerios _combined_.  If you could sing or dance—or, be honest here, if it wasn't social suicide—you would have seriously thought about joining the club. 

Mercedes, Tina, Mike, Artie, Rachel and Sam—you're surprised since he's never really been a part of this group before—are walking in your direction.  You seriously reconsider that social suicide might not be a bad thing, this club has arguably all cutest boys in one room!  You catch Tina's eye and raise an eyebrow.  And right on cue she walks towards you. 

“Hi Tina,” you say.  “How's Kurt?” 

“What?” Tina's eyes are wide.  “What do you mean?” 

“Oh come on Tina, this is me you're talking to,” you say, you can't help but let one side of your mouth rise a bit in a sort-of half-smile.  “Sharelle told me—she's dating that tall guy in the Warblers now, sorry that's a _whole_ other story—that Jonnie Warbler, the tall guy, told her that rehearsals sucked because Blaine was in a mood 'cause he had a fight with Kurt.  Now I see your posse walking down sans Kurt, so it made me wonder...how's Kurt?” 

Tina's eyes got wider and wider as you were speaking—which, you think quite uncharitably, is quite a feat for Tina—until when you got to the end, all she did was let out a sound that sounded like “meep”. 

Tina looks around and then drags you off to an empty classroom. 

“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!  They broke up!” Tina exclaims. 

“Kurt and Blaine?” you ask, excited. 

“Yes! Kurt and Blaine had a huge fight at the Lima Bean.  It was so bad that they were asked to leave.” 

“No!” you exclaim.  “What did they fight about?” 

“Mercedes told me that Blaine accused Kurt of sleeping around.” 

“Was he?” 

“Who, Kurt?” Tina shrugs.  “I don't know but Blaine seemed to think so.  Apparently, he heard a rumor that Kurt was dating other guys behind his back!” 

“No!” you exclaim again.  “Was he?  Who told him?” 

“What are you guys talking about?” A new voice interrupts. 

You and Tina start guiltily and look up to see Mercedes standing by the doorway with one hand on her hip. 

“Are you two talking about my boy?” 

You decide to brazen it out.  “So Klaine is kaput?  Mercedes!  You've been holding out on me!” 

Mercedes stands there looking at you with narrowed eyes.  The silence stretches and you're beginning to get nervous when Mercedes lets out an explosive sigh and rushes towards you and Tina.  You think she's going to deck you but instead she grabs your arm. 

“Oh my god!  Kurt is completely devastated!” 

“Where is he?” you ask. 

“Home, watching “The Sound of Music” non-stop since yesterday.” 

“Why would Blaine think that Kurt is sleeping around?” you ask. 

Mercedes leans forward and whispers.  “Well Mike said that Wes told him that—” 

“Wait, Mike and Wes know each other?” Tina interrupts. 

You roll your eyes.  “Tina, you know the Asian community is really tight.  Now shush!” 

While Tina mumbles, “Well _I'm_ Asian and _I_ don't know Wes...” Mercedes continues.  “Wes said that another Warbler asked him that if he had information about Blaine's boyfriend, (“...and why is Mike talking to you about this anyway? I'm _his_ girlfriend!...”) if he should bring it up.  Apparently they had a closed-session of the Warblers without Blaine to discuss and vote on it.  (“...if he thinks he's going to get some Shanghai Sugar now, he better think again...”) Blaine heard about the session and walked in and heard them talking.  Apparently it wasn't pretty.” 

“So he just accused Kurt of being unfaithful?” you ask not a little flabbergasted.  You cast a Tina a pleading look to stop mumbling about Mike and you include her when you say, “I don't know Blaine that well...okay I don't know him at all but from what I hear that doesn't sound like him.” 

Mercedes looks a little dejected.  “I don't know what happened exactly at the Lima Bean.  Kurt hasn't exactly been coherent lately and the only one who's spoken with Blaine since the incident is Rachel.” 

“You're right,” Tina adds.  “This isn't like Blaine.  He's usually pretty calm and level-headed.” 

“Maybe,” you ask, “they're fighting about something else?  Were they okay before the blow-up?” 

Mercedes and Tina exchange a look.  Tina starts to say, “Like I said, we've hardly seen Kurt since...” when the unmistakable voice of Rachel Berry cuts through the air. 

“Tina?  Mercedes!  Where are you guys?” 

“Uh-oh,” Mercedes sighs.  “Look, we better go.” 

You sigh but can't help but agree.  You and Rachel have a rocky history and you aren't her favorite person in the world.  You have to admit, her dislike isn't completely unjustified.  But if she doesn't want to be talked about, maybe she should tone it down...like, by _a lot_. 

You watch as Tina and Mercedes head Rachel off and you slip out the other door.  You wonder, maybe it's time you did some digging of your own. 

oOo 

“Trent! Over here!” you call out and wave towards the Warbler.  Trent smiles and walks across the cafe and sits in the booth you've commandeered for about two hours now. 

“It's been awhile,” you say as Trent makes himself comfortable.  “We have so much to catch up on!  We haven't really spoken since Regionals.” 

Trent sighs.  “I know, I thought since we weren't going to be singing in Nationals that our schedule would _finally_ lighten up but I forgot to account for the Wes Factor.” 

You make sympathetic noises.  You sit back and listen to Trent rant about Wes.  You know that once he gets into a certain rhythm, Trent simply cannot stop talking.  You've known Trent for years and he likes to think of himself as discreet and tactful, and for the most part he is, but it doesn't come naturally to the Warbler and he needs to vent.  Who would've guessed that it would come in handy one day?  You brace yourself, waiting for that momentary lull in the rant that shows that Trent has vented enough so he won't come back to this topic again but still carried by the momentum so he'll keep talking.  Ah, there!  As he takes a breath, you dive in. 

“That sounds awful!  Well, at least you guys are all professional, I hate to think what it would be like if someone's personal drama got thrown in the mix.”  You just manage to stop yourself from grimacing.  That was really clumsily done; fortunately Trent doesn't seem to notice. 

“Oh how I wish!  Just the other day we had a closed-session meeting because we had to talk about the ethics of whether to get involved in the personal life on one of our fellow Warblers, because you know it could set a precedent, when the Warbler in question walked in!” 

“No!” 

“Yes!”  Trent nodded his head vigorously.  “Jeff—you know Jeff, right?”  You nod and motion for him to continue.  “Jeff saw Blaine's boyfriend—Blaine's the Warbler we were having the meeting about—with another man and he didn't know if he should say anything.  We pretty much unanimously decided that we needed more information before we can make a judgment.”  You smirk as you think, _I'm sure you did_.  “So guess who walks in just as Jeff was describing what Kurt—who—” 

“Is Blaine's boyfriend,” you interrupt.  “I get it, go on.” 

“—Right,” Trent says but doesn't miss a beat and continues, “was doing to another guy.  A college boy.” 

“What?” 

“What 'what'?”  Trent asks. 

“What was Kurt doing to the college boy?” you ask without some exasperation. 

“Oh! Well Jeff saw them at a mall in Columbus holding hands acting like a couple.” 

“Wow,” you say.  _This doesn't sound good,_ you think.  “What did Blaine do?” 

“Oh it got bad,” Trent says. 

“How did it get worse?”  You ask incredulously. 

“Well Blaine basically called Jeff a liar and then started rounding on everyone asking why the Warblers were gathering around like, and I quote 'gossipy old women' end quote, about his love life instead of doing something more useful, like building a snowman in June.” 

“Well,” you start, “he does have a point—” 

“So Jeff showed him a picture of Kurt kissing College Boy on his phone,” Trent deadpans. 

 _Holy Shit!_ You don't know how you didn't say that out loud.  You have to play this just right.  Act too interested and Trent will twig on that he's been less than discreet and he'll suddenly clam up tight.  You raise an eyebrow and assemble a skeptical expression on your face.  “Jeff just _happened_ to have a picture?  If he did, why did he bother asking for a meeting with the Warblers?  Shouldn't he have gone to Blaine directly?”

You get excited when Trent leans forward.  You got him! 

“You don't understand!” he exclaims.  “We're like brothers, we sing well because we're in synch!  If one of us has a problem, all of us have a problem.  Jeff did the right thing in asking for help but it was Wes who called the meeting.”

Oh no, you want to head this off at the pass.  If Wes comes up, this might go back into the rant and you're not ready for that, not until you see the picture!

“Is he cute?”

“Wes?”

“No! Not Wes! College Boy!”  You roll your eyes.  “I mean, what does he look like?”

“Here, I have copy of the picture.”

 _Bingo!_   It's all you can do not to dance right there.  You look at Trent's phone and you see an okay-looking guy kissing someone.  You can't tell as the person's back is to the camera.  However College Boy is definitely the same one in that pic Sharelle sent you.

“Trent?  Who is he kissing?  I can't even tell if that's a girl or a boy, much less Kurt.”

Trent rolls his eyes and starts sliding through other pics.  It shows the couple holding hands and walking through the mall.  Definitely Kurt.

“Wow, Blaine must have been devastated.”

“Oh yeah, he looked positively pole-axed!”

“What happened next?”  You ask, trying to think of way to get a copy of the photos into your own phone.

“He looked at Jeff, apologized for calling him a liar and then just walked out,” Trent answers, and you notice that he looks particularly low.  “We all looked at each other and someone, Jonnie I think, asked if maybe we should go after him and we all ran out but he was gone.  I think he broke into a run the minute he left the room.”


	9. Blaine is Pirated!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaine finds himself in McKinley...and is at a loss on how that happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Cheerio Blaine, possibly more than Blaine Warbler and I'm really disappointed they didn't do more with it. I wanted to start a fic where Blaine is a Cheerio and this is where it started but I realized I had achieved my objective at the beginning and didn't really have a story for after. So it had been sitting in my hard drive for a while now.
> 
> I kinda got carried away with Sue but she's fun when you throw reason and logic out the window.

Blaine Anderson was not happy. He was standing in the corridor of McKinley high as students walked by him. He was standing at the center, looking up at a “Welcome Back to McKinley!” banner and still couldn't figure out how he found himself here.

It was his junior year and it had promised to be a stellar one. He had not only secured his spot as lead soloist for the Warblers but he was going to be a member of the Council, possibly even the chairmanship despite only being a junior. He got first chair in the debate team, first violinist in the Dalton Youth Orchestra, and starting in the polo, diving and fencing teams. He was even going to join the drama guild this year, too. But the cream of the crop (yes, even more than being lead soloist for the Warblers) was receiving the assistant captaincy of—

“Blaine Anderson.”

There she was. The reason he was here in McKinley instead of back in Dalton.

“You’re out of uniform but seeing as it’s your first day that can be excused.”

Blaine turned to face the woman he’s learned to hate with a fiery passion. Blaine doesn’t use the terms “hate” or “love” lightly. But he feels in this case it is warranted. Sue Sylvester stood in front of him with a smirk, a Cheerio—Becky Jackson, if Blaine remembered her name correctly—stood beside her and thrust a box at him.

“Your uniform,” Sue explains. “Practice is in ten minutes. The Cheerios locker room is down the hall, the first corridor to your right. I already took the liberty of encoding your retina and fingerprint patterns into the security pad. You don’t have to thank me.”

“Wait,” Blaine says alarmed, “How did you—”

“While you were sleeping of course,” Sue interrupts nonchalantly. “Don’t worry I spoke with your parents, they will upgrade the security system in your house. I know some people. It will take the full might of the Chinese Military Superstructure to get in your home when they’re done. I’m serious, we tested these measures against the Chinese. It works.”

“This is ins—”

“Ten minutes, Anderson!” Sue barks and stomps of with Becky following after giving Blaine a smug smirk.

“Blaine?!”

Blaine turned to see a shocked-looking Kurt Hummel standing in the corridor.

“What are you—I mean it’s great to see you, but shouldn’t you be in Dalton?”

Seeing Kurt gave Blaine a surge of relief. He knew that Kurt had a crush on him and he had painfully learned that he was unintentionally leading him on last year. Blaine has a skewed sense of boundaries, he’s very tactile and is very free with compliments, which isn't so bad when his friends are straight and are equally tactile. But when the person who is on the receiving end is gay and nursing a crush, it can send a lot of confusing, mixed signals. Fortunately Kurt is very sensible and a much-needed, though a little embarrassing conversation (at least on Blaine’s part), was had and Blaine’s first (of several) lesson in propriety with members of the same sex who may like him and who he likes (he will never live down the Gap Attack) was given over the summer.

“Walk with me and I’ll explain,” Blaine said as he started to walk with Kurt walking in step beside him, “well, as well as I can since I’m a little confused about this whole situation as well.”

They walked down the corridor in silence as Blaine tried in vain to put together what he knew and tried to explain it to Kurt but he didn’t need to. As soon as they took the right, Kurt seemed to put all the pieces together: the box, the corridor that led to the Cheerios locker room (which he was once a member of, no matter how briefly), and the knowledge that Blaine was a member of the Dalton Blue Jays—the all-male cheering squad of Dalton Academy.

“You joined the Cheerios?!” Kurt exclaimed, his voice hitting a pitch that was, until that moment, thought to be unreachable by the human voice box.

Blaine let out a huge breath of frustration. “I don’t know how it happened!” Kurt calmed down when he saw upset his friend was.

“I was called into the Headmaster’s office yesterday and she was there with **both** my parents. Do you realize how impossible it is to get both my parents in the same room at the same time?” Kurt nodded. The weird thing is that the Andersons do love each other but were incredibly busy and had to schedule their moments with Blaine months in advance. “But she not only managed it, she convinced them that it’s to everyone’s best interests that I transfer out of Dalton into McKinley and join the Cheerios! There was a contract and everything!”

Kurt started rubbing Blaine’s back as his friend started hyperventilating.

“Mom’s only stipulation was that I don’t have to give up any of my clubs so they’re bringing in a Coach Washington to expand the swimming program here to include diving and expanding the Jazz band here to a full orchestra! It’s insane! And the Headmaster was just sitting there, grinning with sweat pouring off his brow in buckets!”

“I’m so sorry Blaine, what about debate, polo, fencing…” Kurt trailed off, not wanting to bring up the Warblers since he knew that next to cheerleading, Blaine loved being in the Warblers.

“Apparently Sue Sylvester pulled some strings and got me on the State team for polo and fencing as that was easier than starting two new programs here in McKinley. They do have a debate team here in McKinley, although they aren't ranked. She even found enough funding to revive the drama club to accommodate me,” Blaine looked at Kurt helplessly. “Kurt, just who is this woman?”

“There, there,” Kurt made comforting noises and he regarded his shell-shocked friend. Kurt suspects that Blaine was finally coming to grips with just what happened to him. As much as it hurt him to see his friend upset, Kurt couldn't help but be pleased to have Blaine in McKinley. Having him around would make facing the homophobic bullies that much easier and while he knew his crush was hopeless, it was nice to have a bit of pretty landscape while he was here. The talent in McKinley being somewhat lacking.

Also, he also had to admit that with Coach Sylvester’s single-mindedness in grabbing Blaine, there were suddenly more interesting activities to be had in McKinley. Kurt had been upset that the drama club was largely defunct, now it seemed that Coach Sylvester was giving it much needed funding. Kurt could appreciate the irony that in order to have a winning cheer squad, Coach Sylvester was providing a lot of funding to clubs for the arts.

He was pleased that McKinley finally had a Youth Orchestra, there were a lot of musicians in McKinley but it was an informal group, spread out among the jazz band and the marching band. But he had to ask.

“Blaine, what about the Warblers?” Kurt was immediately sorry he asked as he saw Blaine’s face fall.

“I had to quit of course,” Blaine said mournfully. “But that was the one thing my dad put his foot down. He insisted that I can join New Directions here; apparently Sue had put that in as a clause. Something about losing her Cheerios to New Directions causing her to lose at Nationals?” Blaine shrugged. “But Dad said I am allowed to sing in show choir or ‘the deal is off’, don’t ask,” Blaine cut Kurt off before he could ask. “I don’t know what they were talking about. She grudgingly accepted.”

Both boys were quiet for a while, Blaine wallowing in his misery and Kurt trying to grasp the insanity that is Sue Sylvester. The quiet was broken by Blaine clearing his throat.

“Do you think that New Directions would have me?” Kurt thought it was adorable how modest Blaine can be. He was just telling Kurt how Sue Sylvester just moved mountains to get him here and he still thought that he would be rejected by New Directions. “I’ll audition of course.”

“Blaine, don’t be ridiculous, we would be lucky to have you!” Kurt exclaimed as the Cheerio door slammed open revealing Santana and Brittany standing there.

“Hey Hob—I mean Anderson,” Santana looked like she had to swallow something vile. “Coach sent us out to find you. She was worried you got lost and walked into a mouse hole or slipped down a drain.”

“Mom insisted that I get no nicknames, complimentary or otherwise. They can only refer to me by my last name or my first name when I give them my permission,” Blaine whispered to Kurt when he noticed Kurt’s expression at Santana’s obvious discomfort at editing herself.

“Smart,” Kurt whispered back. Thinking about “Lady Hummel” and “Porcelain” although he had to admit deep down inside that he liked being called “Porcelain”.


	10. The McKinley Initiative

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sue Sylvester is not what she seems. She really isn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been reading a lot of Avenger crossfics lately and so this has been rattling in my head and I can't move forward until I get it down. So I put it down here.
> 
> It isn't perfect and Fury needs to be more badass and Sue needs to be more caustic but I needed to get it out of the way so I can start dreaming up what happens next. If a continuation DOES happen that is cos sometimes it stops right here.
> 
> If this spins into an actual story, I'll post it with its own title of course but until IF that happens, it stays here.

Sue Sylvester strode into her office after 10:15 rounds. She smiled at her Beckretary as she passed her by. She sat down behind her desk and opened the intercom to Becky’s desk.

“Becky,” she said. “Hold all my calls and let no one inside my office.”

“Yes coach!” Becky answered enthusiastically.

Sue smiled as she killed the connection. She took out her mixer as she prepared her 10:20 protein shake and pressed a button on her phone. There was an almost imperceptible shimmer on the glass that separated her office from the rest of the school. Most people would not even notice it, but Sue Sylvester was not most people.

She now knew that while she can see out of the glass, anyone on the other side would simply see her working on her desk, not matter what she did inside. She leaned back on her chair and turned to face the man who thought he was hidden on the corner of her office.

“Hello Nicholas,” she said her voice calm. She loved doing that, you can hide a multitude of sins behind a façade of politeness. “I’m surprised you came all this way, in person no less. I feel…honored.”

“Cut the crap, Sue,” Nicholas Fury, Director of SHIELD, barked out. “We need to talk.”

“I know we do,” she answered with what she knew was a kind of cheerfulness that Fury found particularly aggravating. “It must be pretty big to bring you down here, considering I’ve been trying to meet with you in person for the past three months.”

“I’ve been—” Fury began but Sue cut him off.

“Cut the crap, Nick,” Sue said with relish. “I don’t care what your reasons were, hell, they were probably good ones. All I know is that some serious biblical shit is about to hit the proverbial fan because you have descended from Mt. Olympus itself to grace us mere mortals with your presence so it must be something big but you know that before we even start I want what I want first.”

“This is particularly not a good time,” Fury ground out.

“I want him gone, Nick,” Sue barked back, all geniality gone from her face.

“We need him.”

“No, _you_ need him,” Sue pointed out. “Why, I don’t know, since he just proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s not only incompetent but lethally so. Keep him, I don’t care but I want him gone from McKinley before noon.”

“Schuester—”

“Has been undermining my authority here since Day One and you know it,” Sue interjected. “Figgins was fine, he’s a bean counter and he took care of the day-to-day and let me focus on what you dragged me out of retirement for. Instead, Schuester was mucking everything up I had to step in and take over!”

“You were supposed to train him,” Fury reminded her.

“Schuester didn’t think he needed training,” Sue snorted. “He was convinced that his way was right, that my techniques were antiquated and cruel.”

“Well…” Fury started to say.

“Save it, I have two candidates that will meet Romanova’s potential and, if you don’t fuck it up, even exceed her and I did that without resorting to what the Red Room had decreed were necessary steps. And do I have to point out it’s because of Schuester’s interference that we lost Hudson? Hudson who was on his way to become a Super Soldier candidate? If you didn’t make me promise not to use lethal force, you would have had Schuester’s head on your desk to hold down my letter of resignation!”

Fury stared at Sue. She had interrupted him three times and that was three times too many. But she knew she was right. Schuester was a menace and he had contaminated her school and he needed to be gone. It was really up to Fury if Schuester left McKinley on foot or in a body bag.

“Fine,” Fury finally backed down. “I’ll transfer him to the Carmel Facility.”

Sue snorted but let it go. Carmel produced…adequate candidates. At least whatever Schuester did, wouldn’t make them any worse than they already were.

“I’m glad we came to an agreement Nick,” Sue said with a smile. She can be generous in victory. Besides, she didn’t want to antagonize Fury too much. She liked living dangerously but there was living dangerously and there was stupid. “Now what Earth-shattering apocalypse has occurred that would bring you down here personally?”

“We have an Omega-level threat.”

Sue stood still, all thoughts of games and manipulations gone. She calmed her breathing and spoke in a cool, professional tone. “Situation?”

“We have received advanced warning from our Xandarian contacts, confirmed by the Asgardians, that the Kree and the Skrulls are going to break out in a massive war. Guess who will be caught in the middle?”

Sue’s mind whirled as she thought of reasons why the Kree and the Skrulls would take their fight to Earth of all places. The Kree and the Skrulls were always at war but something tells her that this was something bigger…so what would the Earth have that…ah. She got it.

“The changeling.”

“Yes,” affirmed Fury, not surprised that Sue came to the right conclusion.

Sue’s eyes narrowed as she realized what Fury’s presence in _McKinley_ suddenly meant.

“No,” she growled out. “If you think you can step in here and start recruiting my kids, you’ve got another thing coming!”

“We need them.”

Sue never heard Fury sound so exhausted but even then, she was ambivalent about training children on becoming soldiers but she was damned if she was going to let them go out there without being prepared.

“They aren’t ready!”

“No one is, not really.”

“Don’t give me that!” Sue declared. “Do you want another Hudson? Because I promise you, that’s what you’re getting!”

“An invasion is what we’re getting!” Fury finally shouted back, patience at an end. “Your kids will find themselves in a fucking war whether from the front lines or from the back! There is no ‘safe place’ once those motherfucking bastards get here!”

A crack interrupted Fury and both look at Sue’s desk. Her fist had gone through the top. Sue pulled her hand out, shaking it absently, letting the chips fall off. She rather liked that desk.

“You want the legacies, don’t you?” She asked, knowing Fury was right, while damning him to hell.

“I want all of them that can hold a line.”

“Of course you do,” Sue agreed without her usual rancor, “but you didn’t come all this way for cannon fodder. You’re here for the legacies and you want to know if they can be deployed.”

“Yes.”

Like slipping on a suit, Sue let the animosity flow out of her like water and assumed a more brisk and professional demeanor, like the previous argument just didn’t happen.

She reached into one of her drawers and pulled out a little remote control. With it, she dimmed the lights and the wall behind her desk opened up to reveal a huge monitor. Of course, from the outside, it looked like Principal Sylvester was chewing out some guy on the phone.

The monitor revealed several pictures and videos of a young man, tall and blond.

“Sam Evans,” Sue said, with an odd fondness in her voice that no one except probably a handful of people could hear. Fury was definitely one of them.

“From Project: Generation?” Fury asked although he knew the answer to that.

“Yes,” Sue supplied. “Third generation. His mother, Mary Evans is second generation. Physically fit despite her age and never sick in her life but not superhuman. The only thing strange about her is that in her line, blonde hair and blue eyes are dominant traits. She also gave birth to twins; genetically they are identical twins except that they happen to be a boy and a girl. They are developing nicely but we don’t know if they will breed true like Sam did.”

Fury looked at Sam Evans and saw hope. When Abraham Erskine died, so did the secret to the Super Soldier Serum. Scientists in the last seventy years have tried to reproduce it but they never succeeded, at least not the same perfection that produced Steve Rogers. Variations were made but they either only enhanced a part of the body or mind or had deadly side-effects.

The military, however, did not put all their eggs in one basket. They had created Project: Generation. If they could not have a super soldier in an instant, they were willing to wait for it. DNA material harvested from a post-serum Captain Rogers were used to impregnate 12 volunteers in the hopes that some of them would birth a super soldier. Of the twelve, only four carried to term. Of the four there were only two successful births. Florence Baxter gave birth to Rose Baxter, Sam Evans’ grandmother. Sam was the great-grandson of Steve Rogers.

Mary, Sam, and, hopefully, the twins—Fury looked at their names on the monitor: Stacey and Steve, ironic that since Mary had no idea who her grandfather is—were genetically perfect and all they needed was the vita rays or equivalent to make them equal to Steve Rogers.

“There is one…quirk…if you will,” Sue continued, “Rose had amazing kinesthetic memory. She only had to do a movement once and she could repeat it exactly from then on, this is a trait she passed on to Mary and Mary’s children. However, it also made them dyslexic. A nuisance at worst, it has negligible impact on his development.”

“You aren’t dyslexic,” Fury pointed out.

“No I’m not,” Sue agreed. Sue was the daughter of the only other woman who carried to term, Doris Sylvester. Sue was not dyslexic. In fact, even without the vita rays she had inherited her biological father’s strength, speed, stamina, reflexes and senses. She healed quickly and her ageing has slowed considerably. She was trained since infancy and had served her country for scores of years. The only thing the serum in her system could not give her was a child.

“Evans, of all the legacies, is the one I have the least reservations on deploying,” Sue said. “His kinesthetic memory will let him learn fighting techniques fast, and I’ve slowly been prepping him for the vita ray treatment with medication in his cafeteria food. It has made him a bit loopy but with it, he will weather it better than Rogers did.”

“I’ll pair him off with Captain Rogers,” Fury said.

“Don’t be an idiot Nick,” Sue said but without any heat. “Pair him with Romanova. She’ll get him up to speed quicker. Rogers is a great leader but is too soft. You want Evans ready for this invasion? Get the Widow to train him.”

Sue used her remote again and this time a young man with an impressive chest, boyish features and brown hair filled the screen.

“Ryder Lynn,” Sue noted. “Xandarian/Human hybrid. For some reason he has exhibited the same abilities as a Nova Corpsman despite having no link to the Nova-Force. He is strong, durable and, if our guesses are correct, will be able to fly, absorb energy and release energy. He will be a Nova Denarian at the very least, a Nova Centurion at the most.”

“We are still trying to find out how he has his abilities. His mother was an average Xandarian, brilliant, of course, in her field but no different than a Human scientist trained for space would be. She was not a member of the Nova Corps nor were her parents. It’s a bit of a mystery. But we are confident that if we have to, we can activate his abilities. After all we have been suppressing it all this time.”

Fury raised an inquiring eyebrow and Sue deigned to answer. “We wanted a controlled reaction. None of these kids are aware that they are legacies or that they are being trained for the Initiative. A lot of them have abilities that can be traumatic if we just let it manifest without control. So we provide it.” Sue rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why I’m explaining this to you, it’s why you dragged me out of my condo in Boca after all!”

“This is an interesting one,” Sue continued and the monitor showed videos and pictures of a handsome, hazel-eyed young man playing polo, fencing and singing on stage.

“Blaine Anderson, the son of Dean and Serena Anderson, half-brother to one of yours?”

“Cooper Anderson.”

“Dean Anderson, formerly Dane Whitman aka the Black Knight: scientist, businessman, entrepreneur and owner of one of the most powerful mystical artifacts on Earth, the Ebony Blade.”

“Do we know if Blaine can wield it? I know that Cooper wasn’t considered worthy.”

“I tried telling Dean but he wouldn’t listen,” Sue remembered with honest regret.

“I didn’t realize you knew anything about it,” Fury said in surprise.

“When Dean decided to retire and change his name, he knew that the Ebony Blade would seek a successor. So he when Cooper was born, he made sure that Cooper was trained to be the perfect wielder of the blade. He trained him in everything he felt the Black Knight should know, but he did so at the cost of Cooper’s innocence…ironically his body was the perfect vessel for the blade but the spirit didn’t match.”

“He’s been a great asset to SHIELD though,” Fury said with a smirk.

“I think he’s happier as an agent than he would have been as the Black Knight.”

“This boy, can he wield the blade?”

“Yes.”

“You sound certain.”

“We arranged it,” Sue says with a shrug. “We had people break into his house one night when both Dean and Serena weren’t home. Made sure the only weapon he could get his hand on was the blade. He was able to pull it out of the rock.”

Fury looked like he was about to comment but when Sue raised an eyebrow at him he subsided. She continued her brief.

“When Dean was made the Pendragon for this era, it changed him. Cooper was already born by then but whatever it was is also in Blaine. He has a touch of the fey about him, he has Glamour.”

Fury snorted. “Even I can see that.”

“Seriously Nick? I thought you were briefed on the history of the Ebony Blade?” Sue ignored Fury’s eyeroll and continued. "Dean is a scientist and he used science to determine exactly of what the Ebony can and can’t do, but Blaine, Blaine is magic. He’ll embrace the blade and they will do things Dean never could.”

“And you know this how?”

“The attack on the Anderson residence?” Sue reminded him. “When Blaine grabbed the blade he used it and ran one of our agents through.”

“What?!” Fury exploded. “That wasn't in the report!”

“Yes it was,” Sue replied unruffled. “It said ‘All five agents were wounded but there were no casualties.’”

“But you said that one of them was run through and the Ebony Blade—” Fury spluttered before being interrupted again by Sue.

“Can cut through anything, theoretically even the good Captain’s shield and perhaps even nick Thor’s hammer, and has a blood curse on it,” Sue filled in for Nick. “Yes but Blaine didn’t want the agent to die so despite running him through the heart, Agent Martinez just had what was basically a minor heart attack and fell unconscious. Blaine can do things with the Ebony Blade and we are just at the tip of that particular iceberg.”

_[Kitty is Hellcat, Tina was ruined by Schue so needs to be taken in hand by Tibideaux]_

“Having four legacies is good,” Fury said with hope in his voice. “I was hoping for eight but four is better than I expected. Good work, Sue. We should get these kids up to Helicarrier soon.”

“Nick, you seem to have forgotten something.”

“And what’s that?”

“Who is going to tell them?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love crossover fics and I love crossover fics that either have Marvel or DC in them because it means I can give my favorite characters in another fandom superpowers!
> 
> I know that in most Glee/Avengers cross, Blaine is always the son of Tony Stark. I have no problems with that but the Marvel Universe is just teeming with so many different and interesting characters that just to limit myself with the characters that have appeared in the MCU was ridiculous. Besides, thematically, I felt that Blaine fits the Black Knight more, he does see himself as a bit of knight and is quite the romantic (plus there's that polo and fencing background...the Black Knight had a sword and a winged horse!).
> 
> Also, I didn't realize how serendipitous making Sue the biological daughter of Steve Rogers would be: the stuff she says on canon suddenly doesn't sound quite so ridiculous and her mother, Doris, is/was a Nazi-hunter! I had actually forgotten about that until I had to find out her name!
> 
> And the two candidates she is inferring who can possibly match or exceed Natasha are, obviously, Quinn and Santana.


	11. Blaine and a New School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's well known that after a disastrous Sadie Hawkins Dance, Blaine's parents transferred Blaine to a school where his differences would not be held against him. This is my take on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was my contribution to the Blamily Secret Santa.

Blaine looked at the ivy-grown walls of the school. He sighed, another year, another school. His parents, bless them, really wanted to understand, they really wanted to help but they could only do so much. After the incident at the Sadie Hawkins Dance, his father pulled him aside and spoke to him. He could still remember seeing his mother crying by the window.

"We don't hate you, son," his father had said. "You weren't at fault, do you believe me? You can't help being who you are and those bas— _bullies_  had no right, none whatsoever, in doing what they did to you."

Blaine had nodded because his father expected him to. He even knew that his father meant it, that he believed it. But Blaine didn't. He was a freak. He had no right to be around "normal" people. He shouldn't have gone to that stupid dance. Why try to be like everyone else when he knew he wasn't?

"So please understand that the reason your mother and I are pulling you out of that school has nothing to do with what you are, well, only in the sense that we want to bring you somewhere safe. That you should be somewhere where you can be who you are and no one will stop you from being that person."

Blaine nodded again. He didn't care really. It would at least be an end to the whispers and the side-glances, the shoulder checks and the name-calling. But it still felt like defeat, like he was giving up. Blaine had pride enough that him leaving felt like them winning. He didn't know what the game was but it still felt like losing.

His mom had then wiped her tears and approached him and she had said something shocking.

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart," she had said. He was shocked that his mom had apologized to him. Why had she done that? He had wondered and she had answered his unspoken question. "Your dad had wanted to enroll you in this school the minute we discovered, well, what you are." Mom couldn't bring herself to say the word, but he knew it's because she was raised thinking it was a dirty word and not because she was ashamed of him. When they found out what Blaine was, she forced herself to say the word around Blaine all the time to show that she didn't care and to counter her upbringing but today, Blaine understood that she was too upset to do that. "But I insisted that you should go to a regular school, that we should not be hiding you from the world or hide it from you…I'm afraid that we…that I should have been less naïve…"

Blaine had seen his mom become upset again and he quickly hugged her. "It's not your fault mama," he had said, and it wasn't really. "You shouldn't blame yourself for thinking people are nicer than they really are." He had told her that then and he still believed it, but at the same time, looking at the entrance to the school, he wished that she had listened to his dad the first time around.

"Well, the semester has already started and they are expecting you," his dad had said. Blaine had looked up at him in alarm but his father had known his concerns and was quick to reassure him. "Don't worry, their teaching style is unorthodox but they are still one of the best schools in the country. They have classes in groups but students learn at their own pace. The headmaster himself assured me that you won't have any trouble catching up."

It took them a few days to pack his things and make the trip and here he was. It looked more like a mansion than a school.

His parents had gone inside with one of the teachers; Blaine had stopped to read the motto of the school that hung over the door.

"Hey."

Blaine turned around and saw a tall, gorgeous, blond boy standing behind him. He had the most awesome lips and it was turned up in a shy smile. Blaine couldn't help but begin to blush. He looked at his feet.

"Are you new here?" the Greek god asked.

"Yeah," Blaine answered. He didn't know how he managed but he did.

"Cool," the guy continued to talk to him. Him! "I'm Sam. Sam Evans."

Blaine looked up and saw Sam standing there with a friendly expression. He thrust his hand out and said, "I'm Blaine."

Sam looked at Blaine's hand for a minute, Blaine almost pulled it back when Sam grinned and took it.

"Hi Blaine," he said and shook Blaine's hand firmly yet lightly. "Those are awesome, by the way."

Blaine blushed again and he saw Sam's grin get wider. "They change color, too?"

"Yeah," Blaine said, "they mirror my expression…it's not always cool."

"I get it," Sam said easily.

"Blaine…? Are you out there?" Blaine heard his father call.

"I'd better go," Blaine said reluctantly.

"No worries," Sam said easily. "I'll definitely be seeing you around, Blaine." Sam winked at him and Blaine suddenly heard a dim roar as Sam shot up in the air like a cannonball.

"See you," Blaine said his voice faint in shock. It was one thing to know it was a school for mutants; it was another thing to see it firsthand.

But Blaine's expression of shock blossomed into a smile when he heard Sam call out, "Welcome to Xavier's!"

He looked back at the school motto,  _'_ _Mutatis mutandis'_. He knew from the brochure that it's meant to mean, 'changing only those things which need to be changed'.

He stretched his wings, the feathers still cycling through pink and red and orange and gold from his earlier blush and beat down once, the strength of which made him float a bit before settling down. But this time instead of pulling it close to his body, he let his wings settle more comfortably, slightly open. His feathers were slowly cycling through white, gold and several shades of blue.

With his head held high, his wings held aloft majestically, he entered the school, for once knowing his mutation is the one thing that people here will not want to change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Sam Evans has been merged with Sam Guthrie.
> 
> Yes, I actually have a spreadsheet that details each X-Men character and Glee character, what their powers are, what year they are in, who they replaced and so on.
> 
> No, there is no fic although I will add a "yet" to that because I grew up reading X-Men comics and, for better or for worse, I am a Gleek. So it is inevitable that I will try to put one band of misfits in a school with another band of misfits in a school.
> 
> In short, I will write this fic when I'm good and ready. (If you want to speed things along like dropping off a trussed-up Darren or Chord on my doorstep, you will see this fic get done within a month, I promise you.)


	12. To Hell With That

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry comes to a bitter realization.

Harry was not happy.  Harry tried to hold on to his grief but he couldn't.  As much as he hated to admit it, he didn't have enough time with Sirius, or knew him well enough to sustain his grief for very long.  That didn't stop Harry from being angry at himself, he felt that he was betraying Sirius for not carrying the grief in his heart for a longer stretch of time.  But he had to face an uncomfortable truth, he didn't grieve for Sirius the Man, how could he?  He barely knew him.  He grieved for Sirius the Escape.

Sirius symbolized his escape from the Dursleys.  While Sirius lived, the hope remained that he would be exonerated and Harry would be taken away from his relatives.  Sirius was the loving home that Harry had always yearned for and was denied.  He was the adult who could take away the heavy responsibility that Harry was saddled with, that no child should have to bear.  He would allow Harry to finally just be a boy, to be a teenager whose only worry was asking a girl for a date and if he would pass his exams at the end of the year. 

But Harry saw that escape fall through an arch and never come out the other side.  He mourned for Sirius as he mourned for everyone who died at the hands of Voldemort and his Death Eaters.  But he could not mourn him for more than that and it upset Harry that he couldn't feel more.  Harry felt that he should mourn Sirius more than he mourned for Cedric.  But Harry finds that he only does so a little bit more because, admittedly, he knew Sirius only slightly more than he knew Cedric.  Even as he grieved for Cedric's death, he knew that he mourned more for the lost future of Cedric than he did the boy himself.  Likewise, he mourns for his lost future that he could have had with Sirius more than he does the man himself.

And this realization brings home another one.  He does not really mourn the loss of his parents, but rather the lost history he should have had.  How can he grieve for people he never knew?

Harry was definitely not happy.  All he could see was the desolate, empty field that is his life.  The few monuments that marked important events of his childhood were dark and forbidding.  Where Hermione and Ron would have monuments to their sixth birthday parties, Harry had none, he didn't even know when his birthday was until he was eight years old, and then only by accident.  Where his friends would have monuments in their memoryscape of their first outing with their respective families, Harry had a monument for the first time he was locked in the cupboard for the whole day while the Dursleys took Dudley out for his first outing.

He had some happy memories, not many but he had them and he cherished them all the more for their rarity.  When he learned that he was wizard, that he was special.  When he learned that he was going away, to spend time away from his relatives.  When he made his first friend.  When he got Hedwig.  When he flew for the first time.  When he became a Seeker.  When he won his first game.  When he cast his first spell.  When for the first time in his life he didn't go to sleep hungry.  When he could take baths or showers without rushing.  When he slept in a bed for the first time.

His happiest memories are everyday things that his friends and schoolmates take for granted.  And all of these memories started when he turned eleven.  But Harry did not thank the Wizarding World for this.  After all, it was the Wizarding World that put him with the Dursleys in the first place.

Harry was angry.  What has the Wizarding World ever done for him?  They vilified and slandered him.  They called him a liar and insane.  They set Dementors on him and when he defended himself, threatened to expel him and snap his wand.  They stood by and thought it great entertainment as he faced a dragon when he was only fourteen years old.  They expect him, now a boy of sixteen, to save them but do nothing to earn that sacrifice.

Harry didn't expect them to take up arms against Voldemort, although as someone who had he couldn't help but feel a little contemptuous of those that don't, but at the very least they should oppose his ideas.

Even Hogwarts has been poisoned in his heart.  The school was supposed to be a refuge, yet the school was an equal source of happiness and heartache.  The school may not condone the prejudices of the Death Eaters but they didn't condemn those students who expressed those sentiments or protect those who are victims of that prejudice.

While Harry could never be reconciled with Draco, he couldn't put all the blame on him as Dumbledore and McGonagall never bothered to punish or at the very least censure him when he called Muggleborns “mudblood”.  Weren't they teachers?  Shouldn't they be teaching them how to live right as well as how to cast spells?

The teachers claim they are against the ideals of the Death Eaters but don't do anything to curtail those same ideas in the school.  By keeping silent, they are giving their tacit approval for not stopping or reprimanding those who espouse it. 

Harry's anger burned a little more brightly.  They should put up or shut up.  All they do is whine and moan about how Voldemort and his Death Eaters have caused them pain and suffering but when they are presented with an opportunity to do something about it, they keep silent.  If they don't have the courage to even speak out against it then they should just stay silent on the issue entirely.

Dumbledore.  He knew about the prophecy yet didn't do anything about it and now expects Harry, untrained and unlearned, to do something about it.  Prophecy or not, what does he expect him to do that he himself can't?

Cedric was a Tri-Wizard Champion, which implied that he was the best the school had to offer at the time and he didn't last one second against Pettigrew.  _Pettigrew_.  And he expects Harry to stand up to Malfoy?  To duel Dolohov?  To fight Bellatrix?  Not to mention Voldemort, who everyone says only fears Dumbledore.  If Dumbledore can't stop Voldemort, what hope does he have?  Why hasn't Dumbledore done anything to prepare him for this?

Dumbledore hasn't only failed to prepare Harry, he also, whether intentionally or not, hindered him.  By keeping Harry ignorant of his Wizarding heritage, he left Harry at a severe disadvantage in the Wizarding world.  And he keeps doing this, by sending him back every summer to his relatives, Harry cannot prepare on his own.

Harry doesn't have any resources or any true aid but has been left with the task of taking down a dark wizard so powerful that even Dumbledore wouldn't face him directly.  And to do so for a people who, among other things, called him delusional and a liar.  He is expected to sweat, cry and bleed for a people who have vilified him and who only found him desirable if they can use him.

Harry had come to the only logical conclusion.  To hell with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written at the time when I was reading a lot of fics that depicted an independent Harry and usually involves a lot of bashing of Dumbledore and several other members of his faction.
> 
> Faithful HP fanfic readers will find nothing new in my story which is probably why it ended where it did. I had nothing new to offer that had already been explored and stated by others before...and usually much better! So it petered out after this. I actually had two sentences in after this bit and it just stopped. I haven't even attempted 
> 
> I call this my "Emo Potter Phase" as I find this story arc too simplistic and ripe for exploitation to make an angsty Harry. It's far too easy to take advantage of the plot holes and inconsistencies in the canon plotline to weave a bitter Harry and how the people who were supposed to be on his side are no better than the bad guys out to get him.
> 
> So this is a throwback and evidence that yes, I was an emo Harry reader.


End file.
